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phoenixyfriend · 4 years

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I am seized by a fatal need for courtroom ninja drama fic

But not serious courtroom drama. I'm talking Phoenix Wright style Nonsense.

(Some of this was provided by the folks over in @sloaners‘ server, but the bulk of it was me spitballing nonsense at people who actually know the games, which I do not. I do paraphrase a few times to make it more feasible as a tumblr post/fic concept, rather than a rapidfire text conversation.)

Or one of those like. Reality TV paternity test things? But specifically in my mind the people involved in the actual paternity are a married couple and someone that joined them to be their third, and Clan Elders are throwing a fit about how the baby might not be the heir by blood! while the actual parents are like "I could not care less, this is our child, all three of us, please stop getting involved."

HashiMitoMada would be a VERY good option for the paternity nonsense, mostly because I can see Madara screeching at his own elders about how he already said Izuna would be his heir and he's not changing his mind!

Tobirama is just begging the paternity test to work faster off-screen because he's the only person with the machines to make it happen.

(Hashirama is just. Moping in a corner.)

"I just had to INVENT a paternity test that works before the birth! I had to figure out how to test amniotic fluid! If you assholes make me do something this stupid on such short notice again, I will be digging some shallow graves!" "...for who?" "I haven't decided yet."

Anyway, jumping back to like a Phoenix Wright-style murder investigation.

The victim was Danzo. Even the prosecution isn't actually that interested in making sure someone gets arrested, but they're legally obligated to do at least try. A bunch of people all acting really suspicious about who killed him. There is at least one shitty fake mustache-on-glasses disguise to provide a paper-thin alibi.

WAIT The other thing this gives us is ninjas in three-piece-suits but half of them wear the suits wrong. I’m talking mismatched buttons. The wrong way of tying their tie. Sewn-on-cufflinks. This is Naruto, for instance.

Tobirama would wear it properly, except he's rushing about in a lab coat, screaming at everyone to get out of his way because he's The Entire Forensics Team.

(This is the part where I have to confess that I have only seen the live-action movie of Phoenix Wright, as I don't game, so I just have the live action and tumblr osmosis.)

At this point, of course, we gotta ask: Who is the most Belligerent Witness And who is the Helpful™️ Witness that's super enthusiastic but entirely useless

I can see, say, Mito being a solid witness that both defense and prosecution are really thankful for.

Modern gen you have like... Sasuke and Neji are both incredibly belligerent witnesses. Neji at least is polite about it but pulls the "only answers with the absolute minimum of information."

Lee and Gai would have the over enthusiasm but forget to say actual vital testimony until pressed, and Naruto would love to help but might not be entirely sure what the case even is.

Shikamaru falls asleep when the lawyers consult their partners. Prosecution A consults Prosecution B for thirty-seven seconds, then turns around and the witness is asleep at the stand.

Tobi (as in Obito with mask) is an incredibly frustrating witness. They have to declare a recess just so all the lawyers can recover their blood pressure. "Can we please get someone up on the stand with this guy as a handler? I'm--I'm going to explode."

Gaara: Helpful. Polite. Answers with detail. Answers the spirit of the question as well as the letter. Includes more detail. That's too much detail. Gaara please stop telling us about the sounds that bones make.

His testimony just drags on forever.

Ninken can and will take the stand! Pakkun even enjoys it! Some ninken require translators.

ABURAME TRANSLATING FOR A RANDOM GIANT CENTIPEDE THAT WITNESSED A MURDER IN THE FOREST OF DEATH

There are arguments about whether or not the testimony can count since nobody else can confirm the translation except Other Aburame so how do they know the Aburame aren't part of the coverup.

"Okay, so this Danzo guy had like fifty shell companies but I think I found the route that leads back to him?" "Nah, that one goes to a guy that died eighty years ago that's still collecting pensions: his family lied and said he was still alive for the money." "Fuck!"

Also I just. I love the idea of Sasuke and Madara being the exact opposite kind of belligerent witness.

Also, Orochimaru answers with pretty much the exact kind of wording as Gaara, but where Gaara is trying to be helpful and provide detail for the sake of the case, and failing to see that it's maybe not necessary, Orochimaru just wants to see people squirm. ...similar thing happens with Sakura and Kabuto. Similar phrasing, very different energy.

I keep picturing all of Team Taka as part of Forensics and Evidence Collecting ajshakshjd

Juugo, holding up a rabbit: I found a witness.

Karin joins forensics and Tobirama nearly weeps from joy until he finds her criminal record "Shit, that was supposed to get thrown out when I turned eighteen."

Tobirama: I asked for an assistant, not a criminal. Karin: I'm on parole. Tobirama: That makes things worse. Karin: I know how to use a [concerningly advanced machine that I, a business major, cannot name]. Tobirama: ...never mind, I'm keeping you.

Karin: I know how to DNA sequence AND use LA-ICP-MS Tobirama: [weeps with joy]

Suigetsu would be great at blood splatter analysis. ...I think I read somewhere that blood spatter analysis is actually over in 'fake science that's pushed by cops and media but actually doesn't work' BUT apparently it’s in the Ace Attorney games so we’re going to ignore reality a bit. We’ve already got dogs and rabbits and centipedes as witnesses, what’s a bit of blood spatter?

He's also probably really good at cause of death stuff? Like looking at corpse and figuring out how long it took the victim to die, which blow did it, whether any damage was inflicted post-mortem, etc.

Sasuke is usually too busy playing Belligerent Witness but sometimes goes to join Taka for... uh... reasons.

Juugo: [takes the stand] Lawyer: Hey, uh, why's that Uchiha guy with him? The witness-- Judge: No, no, we need Uchiha Sasuke on hand when questioning Expert Animal Handler Juugo. Lawyer: ...why? Judge: Property damage.

(Sasuke as a work partner with Juugo, also moonlighting as a witness/suspect in Danzo's murder.)

One time they need Juugo but can't find him even though court is already in session and he said he'd be here, turns out he was lured away by Kakashi's army of dogs. Kakashi didn't notice until he turned to ask Pakkun if he could help find the missing expert.

Juugo is a decent lab assistant, I think?

Anyway.

Tobirama taking on Team Taka as his forensics team while Orochimaru is... hm... traveling the country to promote his new autobiography, which is outselling the newest Icha Icha to Jiraiya's ire.

Sloane suggested “a case where it's all the Sannin as suspects in a murder. They would be THE WORST, say... the murder of Hanzo.”

To which I suggested “The Sannin are all suspects but the people on trial are the Ame trio, maybe?”

Which garnered the response of “It could be a surprise upset IN COURT that the trio should be on trial.”

We love a court upset.

Suigetsu finds out that the cause of death was actually an entirely natural heart attack, but while he was determining this, the rest of the team and the lawyers found like eight conspiracies by Zetsu, three by Danzo, four by Orochimaru, and an entire network of nonsense by Sasori.

INO IS THE PSYCHIC. I know her thing in canon is reading minds but pls. Ino is Maya. The Spirit Medium.

Is the judge: 1. Hiruzen 2. Hashirama 3. Hagoromo 4. Mifune 5. The Daimyou

(Old dude with authority, optionally easily distracted/questionably competent. I'd have gone for impressive facial hair but only Mifune and Hagoromo have more than like... Hiruzen's weird soul patch.)

It's not a soul patch but I don't know what facial hair is called and I can't just call it a goat beard

Response commentary was as follows: The Daimyou would unfortunately be closer to the personality of the ace attorney judge, more blindly agreeing with things that sound good :joy: Hiruzen could be fun if only for the competing facial hair for a beard, yes xD Hagoromo would possibly be most buckwild tho WELCOME TO MOON COURT

I managed to get this far with like... NO idea who the judges were except “IDK maybe Kakashi?” but consider:

...HashiMada rival lawyers

Dropping over to Izuna vs. Touka for when Hashirama and Madara inevitably become suspects of something or other themselves and have to be witnesses.

(Tobirama's too busy running blood tests, Anija, let Touka handle it, she's better at people anyway.)

...Hashirama is like. Marginally more put-together than Madara, right? So that... makes him Edgeworth... somehow... That feels wrong but Madara as Edgeworth feels even more wrong.

Madara is very into screaming OBJECTION

ALSO consider: Friction when a doctor from a nearby hospital gets called in to provide expert testimony on something because Karin is like "no hey I should be the one doing this" and then she sees how cute Sakura is.

But also at some point Kakashi vs. Gai for a nonsense case. Their personalities are both VERY FUN for this sort of thing.

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caffeinated-yearning · 3 years

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Confessions and (Bad) Dancing

In which pieces of the puzzle slot into place, feelings are lain bare after a year of working together on cases, and some people are better at dancing than they have any right to be (but unfortunately I am not one of them).

Word Count: 2103 Warnings: uhhh aside from crippling embarrassment as a center-stage piece, none I can think of.

“Slow dance? No, sorry, I don’t know how.” It was ironic, the tone Mark used- but he was sincere; not for lack of trying, but a waltz was simply outside his dancing expertise. So was pretty much every dance step ever; he had never been very skilled with dance. I’ll step on your foot and scuff your shoes, or I’ll fall into you, or “it will be unsightly,” and that’s a promise. A low hum as the half-smile fell from something almost sincere into a flatter expression that looked more unyielding than it was.

Mark’s eyes remained on the offered hand, still outstretched as Mr. Edgeworth spoke; “I promise it’s easier than you think.” For one half-second, Mark actually considered it. Considered it carefully, from every angle- and from all perspectives foresaw himself getting embarrassed. Either through his own inexperience, or some comment thereupon. If nothing else, being that close to Miles- to Mr. Edgeworth would destroy the easy-going facade that he so carefully kept. A quick one-two and done, Mann overboard.

Miles added, after a half-second of silence; “consider it a request; it has been a while since I’ve had the opportunity, and I can think of no one I’d rather share it with.”

…

What?

Operation ‘try not to think gay thoughts’ has been blasted wide the fuck open, and all smashed to smithereens; what does that mean? What does that mean?! Dumbstruck, feeling his hands and feet go ice-cold and at the same moment his chest and face start to burn, Mark was… Passingly aware that he’d accepted Edgeworth’s (Miles’?) hand.

What???

What a terribly foolish thing to admit. Miles chewed his lip, hoping that that specific admission would pass cleanly over Mark’s head. The opportunity, hah! No one he’d rather share it with— a request?! How utterly embarrassing to have said so much. He considered himself lucky, and unlucky, that this Mann was so incapable of noting any act of affection leveled toward him.

Not… not that Miles was well known for being terribly affectionate. Still.

And, likewise now, Mark seemed wholly preoccupied with other things. Perhaps his utter obliviousness would continue to spare Miles the indignity of having to discuss any matters of the heart.

… That there were matters of the heart which needed discussing was… well. It certainly wasn’t something he wanted to acknowledge.

Mark didn’t have the emotional wherewithal to hold his head up on the path to the dance floor- normally he wouldn’t dream of hanging his head, but the ground became very interesting when one needed to focus on one’s step, and even if he didn’t need to focus, meeting the eyes of (not allowed to think ‘crush’ but) Miles Edgeworth was dangerous enough.

Ah- oh no. They really had crossed that distance rather too quickly for Mark’s liking. Hand-on-back that rested warmly against this, his body, and it suddenly felt cumbersome to be- just to be. Mark’s own hand held feather-light over Miles’ shoulder; unwilling even to touch- to touch Miles. His hands were so cold and his face so warm- God, if there be any mercy in the world, may lightning strike me down here and now.

Alas, no such luck.

As the music started, step-one-two, don’t mess this up and stumble as Miles pulled him closer-; hand landing like lead to stabilize himself, and Mark felt his brain go absolutely empty- empty and full of static at the same time. “Sorry, sorry,” he mumbled, pulling back just to see where he was stepping- to see he was trodding on Miles’ feet and step-step stumble off. “I’m sorry—.” Sorry sorry sorry fuck.

“You really are unfamiliar with this,” Miles almost found it amusing, how little coordination there was. It- the dance- was all an excuse to be close to Mark in an otherwise over-crowded venue; he almost certainly should not have done this, should not even have admitted that he wanted to do this, but he had. While it was clumsy, it was still enchanting- just to be there together.

If only Mark were slightly more aware of the situation.

Miles sighed lightly, watching Mark glance one way, then the next- evidently searching for something, though what exactly he was looking for was beyond Miles’ kenning. Looking up, then down, then up again; it was a wonder he didn’t get dizzy.

A tense voice, anxious; “I said I’m bad at dancing.” Not exactly… ideal, for a (not a date but) dance.

“You’re not the worst,” Miles offered.

“But I’m not the best.” Quickly dismissed.

“Do you need to be the best at everything?”

“You can’t tell me you disagree- that you don’t want to be the best at everything you touch.”

That was… A fair enough point, he supposed. “But it’s an unreasonable standard to hold yourself to.”

Mark laughed at that- rude enough, tonight; “from you? From you?? We’re the same in that regard, at least. Neither willing to be less than the best, and neither expecting the world to live by the same standards.” At least he wasn’t still so stressed. And he’s back to watching our feet.

Mark felt himself pulled along at an unfamiliar speed; again he had been pulled a little too close, the dizzying steps tossing him face-first into Edgeworth’s cravat with a muffled ‘oomph.’ Despite all his struggling, he managed to scowl up into the grey above when he recovered his legs. So much struggling, with this dance thing. Struggles to meet a gaze, struggles to match the step. Infinite struggles, it seemed. Terrible!

Miles looked away too quickly when the glare was cast- had he been looking at me? “It gets easier with practice, you know.”

Mark grumbled and huffed and felt very inelegant as he tried not to step on any shoes without looking. “Which is useful if you are inclined to practice- so, not useful to me.”

“Hmm. Perhaps you would be so inclined if you had someone to practice with?”

Mark glared back at his feet with that; to look at Miles when his face was this bright (step over, Rudolph,) would convey only that he found the notion embarrassing- and master of logic that Miles was, surely if he didn’t put it all together by now, he’d have the final piece of evidence in the long and storied history of Mark has a big ol’ stinkin’ crush on pretty boy Miles Edgeworth like some kind of gay dweeb or something. Mark was sure he hadn’t been found out, but just as sure that it was only a matter of time. Damned if he would speed that along by actually showing off his embarrassment like some neon sign over his head. Over his face. Whatever.

“What-? Practice with you?” He tried not to laugh at the absurdity of it all.

“Is that so bad an idea?” Oh Miles was on fire with suggestions that would be impossible to explain away in the future, when they had work tomorrow and had to act like nothing happened.

“It’s a terrible idea!” Despite the words, Miles could hear the smile in Mark’s voice; like it was all a joke.

“Oh?” He tried not to take offense to that- the offer was genuine, even if it would have been hard to explain away in the future. “And what’s so terrible about it?”

Mumbling, as though trying to speak under his breath and not accounting for the fact that they were less than arm’s distance from each other; “I’m gay; you figure it out.”

This time when Mark walked into Miles’ chest, it was less because of his own inexperience, and more to do with Miles coming to his own screeching halt.

“… What?”

“What?” Mark looked up, and reflexively Miles looked away again.

While blushing might have been a bit too strong a word for it, Miles felt his throat, face, and ears burn with… hmmm, embarrassment? Something more akin to sudden, unwanted understanding, as all the pieces fell in place. “Wh-?! What does- what does that have to do with it?!”

“I said I’m bad at dancing! You’ve noticed!! You can’t tell me that you haven’t noticed. Perhaps I am completely without rhythm, perhaps I am wholly incapable of such things as stepping around a room elegantly!”

“That’s definitely not what you said,” he started moving again- but this time, it was less of a dance and more of an attempt to hurriedly get out of the center of the room, get off the dance floor and into a place slightly quieter, slightly less in the view of everyone around. The appreciation in Mark’s expression was subtle, once he realized they were leaving- only for it to get suddenly screwed up into apprehension.

Miles supposed it was probably because Mark had put together that they were leaving for the sake of a slightly more serious discussion.

The evening breeze was lovely, Mark supposed; it was cool enough that he could almost radiate away all the embarrassment without having to go shove his entire head under a cold tap.

Almost.

“Now,” Mark refused to look at Edgeworth- not that looking would have been so difficult in the dark of the night, but the idea that Edgeworth would be able to see Mark’s own face was enough to keep him looking to the side. “Mr. Mann, please.”

He glanced over in spite of himself- and though it was dark, something in Miles’ stance, or gestures, conveyed the same unease. “This is he who’s speaking.”

“This is not the time for jokes, sir.”

Miles groaned, and despite the fear sense in the air, Mark cracked a smile. “But I am such a jester! It’s only natural that I crack a joke to lighten the mood.”

“I— even so,” Miles sat on the steps, gesturing for Mark to join him. “Please explain why your being gay is relevant.”

“You’re clever; can’t you figure it out?” Mark had almost sat down, and then the question (request?), and he elected instead to lean against a pillar and not, in fact, sit at all. “Surely something like that is obvious.” The smile had faded, that much was obvious in his tone.

“You’re not afraid to fall in love with me,” Miles posed it as though it was a question, rather than a statement of fact; attached to the end was an ‘are you?’

“Far worse,” Mark breathed; a whisper directed away that didn’t land upon any ears at all.

“Since that’s not an issue, I’m afraid I don’t see the logic.”

“I already…” have.

“Hmm?”

“Your logic is faulty. It’s well past your statement.”

“My… Do you mean ‘afraid to fall in love’?”

“That one, yeah.”

“Well past, then…” The silence sounded almost like disbelief; not that Mark was going to look over and see for himself. “You—?”

“Don’t tell me you didn’t notice.”

“You didn’t—!”

“For a long time!!” Mark wanted to laugh and scream all at the same time. God, what a terror this was! To admit to a crush one’s feelings, to acknowledge—.

“You didn’t notice either—?”

Wait what??? Mark turned around so fast he got dizzy and fell over. Miles was standing, having stood up at the revelation, and now he was leaning over Mark to help him get back up on his feet, and oh what a humiliating thing— “what do you mean ‘notice either’??? What’s that supposed to mean???”

“I knew you were oblivious but I was certain at least by tonight you’d have figured it out-.”

“Figured WHAT out?! What are you talking about?! Is this a dream? Am I dying and dreaming or something??”

“When I asked you to dance I was certain that would have clued you in-.”

“Oh my GOD whAT no I’m surely dying this is it, goodbye sweet world!”

“I can’t believe you would just throw away all evidence that pointed to my liking you at all!” By now they were both standing, and the panicked stream of words that had seemed never-ending had slowed to a point where they once again took turns speaking. “You really had no idea, then?”

“No. I’m a clown, remember?”

“Hmm. Well.”

“Regretting saying anything?”

“No, I think not.”

Hand in hand, a moment’s pause before clearing of throats and suggestions that perhaps they ought to return inside.

“I still think I’ll simply die if you try to teach me how to dance.”

“Well we certainly wouldn’t want that. Very well, you are free of such an obligation.”

“Good. I’d rather not have any more heart-attacks for a while.”

#for reference when there's a single dash it's meant to indicate perspective shift #[[ Reason and Rationale | Miles Edgeworth ]]#I've had this in my WIPs for TOO LONG #IT'S FINALLY DONE #caffeinated writing #no memory of my tagging system. sadge #no I do not know how to title things. thank u

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avirams · 3 years

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for the aa game, questions number 16, 19, 20, and 21? im kinda curious about your thoughts on those

yeyyyses aa asks thank you nonnie :DD

(somehow, these answers are even longer than last time. proceed with caution)

16. If there was anything you could change about the series, what would it be?

ohhh man there is SO much to discuss on this one. for starters, id probably keep shu takumi as the director for aa5 and aa6 because yeah. yep. while the characters were written really awesomely in those games imo, the plots execution kinda,,, ruined all that potential. soo many holes, and nothing made sense DLJLDK

next, id actually like!! keep the focus on whatever new characters are supposed to star in the games!! i talked about this too on my meta blog. phoenix is great and all, but bringing him back as a protag in everything just for the Brand(tm) was,,, a really bad choice. so give apollo the spotlight, athena her own game, and keep phoenix off to the side plEase.

same with edgeworth!! we need more focus on the other rivals (klavier, franziska, etc etc). love him and all, but his arc ended ages ago back in the triology. and it really bugs me when they use him for everything, because like, we know capcom has the ability to write great character arcs!! edgeworth is a great sign on that!! but they just forgot about SO many other people for his sake!!

oh oh also, they just need to bring back other characters in general. gumshoe, lana, klavier, yknow like. give other characters CRUMBS of what phoenix and edgeworth get pl

and finally, i just want them to talk about what happened in previous games. in the og triology, it was good cuz YES it was annoying when we got a flashback of dl6 every time but ALSO. also!!! dl6 is like, a crucial part of edgeworth and mayas and a couple other peoples development!!! the issue in aa5 and aa6 mostly, is that theyre SO scared of spoiling previous games, which reallllyyy hindered any possible development we couldve gotten :(

19. Favorite character design?

i talked about this more in emas opinion thingy, but definitely hers. everyone else kinda goes bloo blah on keeping the same outfit for literal decades,,, but hers actually changed a lot, while still keeping the lab coat and goggles!! theres also a lot of easter eggs in her design? like the pink princess pin? and the badge thingy as well, b/c those appeared on other peoples outfits and plot and that was just a really nice detail imo

20. Worst motive?

hoo boy. okay. i cant reeeally think of anything off the top of my head, because most of them were pretty cool, but yknow whos really sucked? ambassador albas!!!!! aai was SUPER fun and i loved a lot of the reveals!!! but the drug dealing subplot was,,,, really boring and gave me a headache. it took me an actual week of gameplay to finally convict him, all because he didnt want to be found out as the leader of the smuggling ring. really stupid

21. Favorite backstory?

hmhmhmhm,,, tbh, a lot of the main people have super fascinating backstories? i wont say edgeworth for this because it does get kinda tiring hearing it, apollo has 50, klavier has none and phoenix just gets like. 3 big things that happened in the past and we dont know anything else

after all that,,, probably lanas. i know she only appears for ONE case, but since i already answered ema, i really liked hers. because shes a strong person!! but even after all that, she couldnt do what she really wanted,,, and when she became a prosecutor it was gants fault,,, and everything was getting corrupted right in front of her,,, but she couldnt do anything cuz ema,,, yep. top tier stuff. itd be even better if we could get some context on intellectual attraction tho,,, :(

oh my GOSH i can fit so much rambling into these i apologize <//3 but thank you thank you thank you for wanting to hear these!! it means so much that people dont mind me talking this much dfkmgkfdm

#aai spoilers #rfta spoilers #ace attorney spoilers

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sevi007 · 4 years

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Finished the first „real“ case, “Turnabout Corner”, of Apollo Justice and it sure was a ride from the get-go!

* The starting off cases – noodle stands and stolen panties and all that – actually made me go “ah here we go again”. It’s just this typically AA weirdness that goes on here, eh. XD Already guessed that it wouldn’t stay with these innocent crimes, and wasn’t all that surprised when there turned out to be a murder somewhere in the middle of all this. (And kind of relieved for Apollo XD)

* Met Trucy! Love Trucy! Do you think Phoenix would share custody with me? XD Coincidentally, everyone else also seems to love Trucy, which does not surprise me at all. She’s a sunshine girl.

… Even when she pretends to be held hostage with the help of Mr Hat. XD What a smart girl! (In her defense – she’s a magician and a show woman. Excuse her for being a little dramatic!)

By the way, does anybody know if Trucy is a REAL magician, or uses tricks? Considering there’s actual ghosts and ghost-possession and stuff in this series, I would not be surprised if there’s a little actual magic in her. Would still be immensely impressed if a young girl was this talented at magic tricks though!

* Trucy and Apollo’s face models are kind of similar, in my eyes. A bit like Maya and Mia often reminded me of each other without being identical. Nobody spoiler me, please, but I’m gonna guess they are related (since I KNOW Trucy is adopted and we have not yet met her family, nor Apollo’s, it’s possible)

* Also met EMA again! Super happy about that, seeing how far she has come. Well it’s not the job she WANTED, but it’s the job Gumshoe also had, sooooo… that means we see her more often, right? Right? Really excited about that.

* Klavier also made an appearance. Already braced myself for the usual passive-aggressiveness, but… he’s actually mellower, so far, than the former prosecutors. Still jabbing at Apollo (Mister Forehead, for example) but still gentler. Still a formidable enemy in court, of course! But also kind of fun so far. Especially with his air guitar and sneaking in German words in between. I like him already and hope him and Apollo get to get along with each other – if it does not turn out that he’s faking it and actually as bad as his big bro is, that is. XD

* I kind of want to whack Phoenix over the head at points. He’s still PHOENIX and I really like him lots – how could I not? But this new streak of him subtly manipulating Apollo – not even the “enemy” but really one of the good guys – and only ever smirking at him and dodging when Apollo wants, needs to know more, is so against the supportive, cheery, open Phoenix I got to know that I want to whack him and say “Get a hold of yourself, man!”. I don’t do it cuz I understood he’s in a real slump, himself, but it’s not fair to Apollo. At all. He’s not a pawn, for god’s sake. Who are you, Phoenix – Godot? We already learned that’s not how you treat others, my dude.

* Actually a little in love with the gameplay mechanic of finding tells that say when a character is lying. First of: It’s realistic as heck. Second of: there went so much DETAIL into this? Giving each one a different, realistic, not-too-obvious tell? I’m very impressed with it!

* Love the theme that starts playing when Apollo has a breakthrough. So cheery!

So, so far: Very, very fun characters, as always, new and old ones. Cases are fun (though was this one a bit longer than usual? Eh maybe it was me). I’m interested to see where it takes me!

Ah, one thing: I think one of the funniest things, to me, is that Apollo is actively the first main character here that I’m playing who decisively fights the usual AA weirdness, at first. Phoenix literally leaned into it; while not always happy with it, the weirdness was kind of his day-to-day. Edgeworth might have gone about it more logically, and sometimes pointed out in what a weird mess he had landed in again, but he just kind of… rolled with it. Apollo is just here like, throwing his hands up, going “what is wrong with you people?!” and it’s hilarious. I almost feel bad for him, except I don’t. XD

#sevi plays apollo justice

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milaza · 4 years

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my thoughts on horace knightley, part 1 of 500. aai2 spoilers for the whole game, please don’t read it if you haven’t played it yet.

simon keyes is very much a sympathetic villain. he’s kinda like what dahlia would be if dahlia was a clown and also learned not to kill people directly. i don’t think people are as sympathetic to knightley, though, despite him having nearly the same backstory. the reason being: he’s a major asshole.

plus, he’s a first case culprit and a second case victim, so who cares about him.

seriously, even though i love knightley, i think he’s the worst! most people in ace attorney kill for personal reasons at least, like damn, what has rooke ever done to you? when edgeworth defeats him, he goes off about how he wanted to be the leader and be in control of everyone... which is actually something i forgot as i continued to fall in love with him.

it’s just my own memory issue, because i thought that his main issue was just that he wanted to be the leader for the sake of being a leader, not to control others. i’m not even sure if that’s brought up anywhere else (aside from his ‘controlling the chessboard motif’) since all the other times it’s mentioned, he just seems to be jealous of rooke. in fact, even the aai2 art book says that the reason he was so jealous of rooke and desperate for a promotion was because he saw the president as a father-like figure. considering his own past with his father, well... horace knightley wants a good dad is the thing. i feel sad that he never got one.

this doesn’t excuse anything, especially since he didn’t regret it afterwards. however, it does put an interesting perspective on lines like “you’re always like this! rooke this, rooke that...!” somehow sounds like a younger child who’s jealous of their upstanding older brother talking to their dad. yeah, horace, well maybe if you didn’t fucking kill rooke then everyone wouldn’t be talking about him, shithead.

so yeah, i’m not really sure what to say other than that knightley and keyes both wanted a proper dad, a lot. even if their actual dads weren’t terrible, they were still orphans anyway, so that’s understandable. knightley ended up finding a dad in a man just as cowardly as him (who was also someone keyes hated incidentally) and keyes found a dad in uh, an assassin.

but anything’s better than pierre and dane, i suppose.

when keyes told knightley about the fake asassination plan, i think that he was actually hoping for knightley to have killed the president, not rooke. like maybe he thought knightley had the same thought process as 6-4's culprit: the president/taifu deserves to die because he didn't place me in charge/give me the uendo name.

maybe he didn't expect that knightley thought of the president so highly, even if he knew knightley disliked rooke. i can't remember the grand turnabout too well, but all i'm saying is that i think keyes expected knightley to use the fake assassination plan as an opportunity to kill the president, and then he'd get caught and go to jail for it. that way, keyes would knock down two birds with one stone, although...

if he did kill the president, that would tarnish knightley's reputation as a bodyguard anyway, even if he wasn't caught. maybe he'd find some way to pin the blame on rooke?

also, i think it really is so sad that knightley wound up respecting a man who hurt keyes so much. although he hated knightley, i was thinking that there'd still be an opportunity for them to be friends if edgeworth had discovered the truth earlier + knightley came out as french but i don't think it would be possible anymore.

the president didn't care about knightley's life, anyway... i think that made knightley especially upset at the president caring so much about rooke when he didn’t seem to care as much about, uh, knightley being threatened with a knife by an assassin three days after he had his neck broken by said assassin (don’t remember this too well).

sucks for both of them. ace attorney makes me sad and i don’t like to think hard about things.

R.I.P. ETHAN ROOKE I LOVE YOU KING YOU DIDN’T DESERVE TO DIE

#ace attorney #horace knightley #text

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astrologista · 4 years

Text

AA4 Medieval AU

getcher apollo justice fantasy/medieval au right here. (spoilers for aa4 kinda tho)

this idea will not leave my mind so... take it... i think i messed up some details lol but this is just for fun so please, don’t rake me over the coals for it.

(time is screwed up here so before the timeskip apollo is 7 and trucy is a baby. after the timeskip apollo is 14 and trucy is 7. for the sake of it i’m gonna have klavier also be about 14 post-timeskip. other ages may be scaled down for consistency... idk i had to make it work somehow.)

Once upon a time, King Magnifi of the House Gramarye ruled the land in peace. In his old age, his daughter Princess Thalassa readied herself to become queen. It came time for Thalassa to choose a royal consort, the person who would also be the next king of Attornia.

There were two choices, Zak and Valant. In the end, Princess Thalassa chose Zak. Disgraced, Valant left for parts unknown. Thalassa and Zak married and received Magnifi’s blessing before his death. Thus began the reign of Queen Thalassa of House Gramarye, and King Zak Enigmar.

It wasn’t to last, however. Seeing his chance to seize power, Count Kristoph of the House Gavin, King Zak’s closest advisor, betrayed King Zak and murdered him in cold blood. All the evidence vanished without a trace, and the case was never solved. In the process, he was able to cause Queen Thalassa significant injury, as well. The people assumed she, too, had been murdered in this incident...

Though hotly debated throughout Attornia, no one could deny that the line of succession had been broken, since Queen Thalassa and King Zak had not had any children, and therefore no heirs or heiresses to the throne. According to the law, Count Kristoph, at the age of 25, was now able to seize power and become King Kristoph of Attornia.

His rule, while considered by many to be stable, measured, and fair, was completely tyrannical. He arranged for the citizens to worship him like a god, encouraged a cult of personality, tripled work hours on the poor and taxed basically all the citizens into poverty, then used all the tax money to build extravagant monuments to himself, and expand the palace into his personal utopia complete with gold, jewels and hundreds of servants. One of his servants is a young foundling named Apollo Justice, who’s about 7 years old when he was left at the palace gates. King Kristoph decided to make Apollo his successor... someday. But for now he’s being trained as a servant, because he’s just useful like that, and he’s eager to please.

But, there is still hope for Attornia, as Queen Thalassa has one trump card hidden up her sleeve. She was spirited away from the palace by her attendants, and forced into a life of hiding as the mysterious wise woman, Lady Lamiroir. Her memory had been taken from her by the injuries sustained during Gavin’s assault. What no one knows, though, is that she was pregnant at the time. Luckily, the baby was unharmed. She is Trucy Gramarye, the one true princess. To keep her safe, Lamiroir entrusts the girl to a trusted man, Phoenix Wright.

Some seven years have now passed since then, and Attornia is still suffering under the reign of the House Gavin. Trucy Gramarye is 7. Apollo Justice is about 14. The day comes at last when Apollo meets a strange man in town, a mysterious stranger in peasant clothing named Phoenix Wright, who tells him a tale of the true and rightful heir to the throne. By rights, Trucy should be crown princess, as she has royal blood. (Phoenix will serve as regent king in her place until she’s old enough to rule.) At first Apollo doesn’t and can’t believe it, because King Kristoph would never lie to him, right? And Apollo then learns that he, too, has royal blood... except for the little issue that he’s a product of an illegitimate relationship between Princess Thalassa and a bard named Jove Justice and therefore has no claim to the throne. This crushes Apollo as all his hopes of becoming what Kristoph has been training him to be all his life are dashed. (I kind of waffle on whether Jove should be alive as a bard or dead in this AU. Alive would be good. Let’s go with alive. Or else this AU is going to be too traumatic for Apollo. How he got separated from Apollo is... something I’ll think about later but it’ll probably be sad)

But, once Phoenix shows Apollo once and for all how the poor are suffering under the reign of Gavin, Apollo eventually changes his mind and decides to join the effort to investigate and restore peace to the realm, with the help of Phoenix, Trucy, Lamiroir, and... others!

One thing Kristoph doesn’t want to draw attention to is his brother, Klavier, who is a knight in training (and a bard with a lute on the weekends). Instead of granting him a lofty government position, he hides him somewhere in the ranks of the knighthood and otherwise avoids interacting with him. Daryan is one of the other knights in training (and is also a bard). The captain of knights in training is Romein LeTouse. The foremost of all knights is Sir Edgeworth. (Simon Blackquill is one of the other knights because yes. And who doesn’t want Knight!Blackquill with Taka?)

Supporting cast includes weird jester Spark Brushel, a medieval pub run by Eldoon and Olga Orly, a scholarly monk named Wesley Stickler, a small village/hamlet run by the Kitakis where Wocky is considered royalty, royal healers Pal Meraktis and Alita Tiala, and a certain Marie-Curie-like young woman named Ema Skye who is a relatively well-off lady to most, but secretly has a whole science lab running experiments with beakers and a lot of steampunk stuff. Phoenix keeps an eye on Lady Lamiroir who has to stay in hiding. She takes in a young boy named Machi Tobaye, who reminds her of the son she lost many years ago (she doesn’t know that Apollo is that son, or doesn’t find out until later). There’s also the royal portrait painter Drew Misham and his daughter Vera.

The gang ends up diffusing some diplomatic troubles between Wocky’s family and Alita Tiala when it comes out that Alita is just looking to marry into royalty. In the next plot, Daryan is revealed to be a traitor to the knighthood and is doing some shady stuff on the order of King Kristoph, such as tailing the gang to find out how much they know. (If Kristoph finds out about Trucy and gets to her first, it’s all over...) Klavier eventually becomes part of the gang, turns out his knowledge is extremely helpful, but Apollo does question whether he can even be trusted considering his relationship to Kristoph. Most of the rest of the plot is attempts to destabilize Kristoph’s regime and reveal his evil and selfish acts. For some reason I’m seeing a situation with a play, where somebody gets to say (probably Apollo) “So the play’s the thing wherein we’ll catch the conscience of the king?” because, yes. In the final plot, royal portrait painter Drew Misham and his daughter, Vera, are in trouble and are at risk of being executed by King Kristoph (botched portrait of the king maybe??). The gang has to stop that at any cost. And, they have to reveal to the entire kingdom the true nature of King Kristoph... and the fact that he’d be willing to execute an innocent painter and a young girl is definitely going to make clear that true nature to everyone.

And finally, of course our heroes triumph in the end, and Phoenix becomes King of Attornia, as regent for Trucy who will one day be Queen! Lady Lamiroir also gets to return, and she is still considered a beloved ruler despite her injuries preventing her from fully embracing the role, she still supports Trucy and Phoenix from the background. And some of her memories return! Apollo of course will always have a place as part of the family, too, and decides royal life isn’t for him. He instead becomes something of a local mediator of disputes! And they all lived happily ever after!

As for King Kristoph, he is pissed and promises he’ll return with a vengeful scheme. For now they just exile him to some remote island like Napoleon where he’ll hopefully just rot and die. But we still have to set up the sequel somehow right??

Now someday I need to find the time to... actually write this and make it like a 50k or something longer... oh boy

#apollo justice #aa4 #this is fun #i don't usually au but when i do... oh baby. i do

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rivalsforlife · 4 years

Note

oooo i'm sorry but one more scene for commentary if youre up to it: maya and phoenix talking in chapter 6?

Of course, no need to apologize!! Once more, keeping this under a “keep reading”:

Around noon, his apartment intercom buzzed. “Nick, it’s Maya! Let me up.”

Maya? What was she even doing here? Maya never visited him out of the blue anymore… Whatever. She’d probably think he was at his office. She’d go away soon.

There was another buzz. “Nick! I know you’re in there! I called your office, you know!”

Kids these days. Selling out their bosses that easily… Maybe he should cut Athena’s salary. Nah, he wasn’t Edgeworth. … Edgeworth.

“don’t think about Edgeworth don’t think about Edgeworth -- ah damn it”

“Nick! Hello! Nick!”

She had to give up eventually, right? Whatever she was here for, someone else could help her…

“Security’s coming after me, if they arrest me you’re gonna have to defend me, you know, do you want that? I’m not even gonna try to pay you for it since it’s gonna be your fault —”

Ugh.

Phoenix stumbled out of bed and buzzed her in. “Fine. Come up.”

“Thank you!” she chirped in a sing-songy voice. “Hey, you heard him, let me go…”

Maya’s Obnoxious Little Sister Energy is eternal. Her next strategy was to break from the guards and dash as far as she could go trying to break her way into Phoenix’s apartment which... wouldn’t have ended well haha.

Also! Like I mentioned in the previous ask, a lot of this fic was just Phoenix’s Relationship Issues, and the way I characterized him in this fic was a lot of... he needs to have people around or he kind of falls apart, and his history of having people around was that these people needed him in some way -- Maya after she was accused of murder and then hanging around for Mia’s sake, Trucy being abandoned and needing looking after, even Miles to an extent needing to be saved from his corrupt ways and the von Karma influence -- and now that they’re all growing up and don’t need him anymore he thinks they’re going to abandon him.

That’s a long-winded way of referring to that one sentence of “Whatever she was here for, someone else could help her”

Also... I don’t live in an apartment and haven’t visited many apartments? So I’m not totally sure how the whole buzzing someone in process works. no one’s called me out on it though so I guess I’m okay.

Phoenix sighed and wondered if he should make himself look presentable. There probably wasn’t enough time. Maya wouldn’t notice that he hadn’t changed his clothes for two days, right?

She probably would. But he couldn’t do anything about it, as just then there was a knock on the door. Figuring he should appease her so she wouldn’t give security anymore trouble, he reluctantly let her in.

Indeed, there was Maya, looking cheery as ever. “Hey, dude. What’s going on with you?”

“Nothing,” said Phoenix, and in response to Maya’s raised eyebrow as she took in his appearance, “Just not feeling well. Why’re you here, Maya? I thought you were busy up at the village.”

passive-aggressive “oh aren’t you supposed to be busy?” from Phoenix here...

One of the other major changes I made to this fic in the editing process was cutting out a LOT of Maya content. I really love her and wanted her to be here more, but to properly go through the Phoenix Characterization Study I had to make it seem like she wasn’t around as much so that Phoenix would feel more lonely. again, sorry, Phoenix... but like originally she came down for the picnic in chapter 3 and was around at the beginning of chapter 4, so it would be SO WEIRD if she showed up in every single chapter except for chapter 5 and then Phoenix accuses her here of being too busy to hang out with him. She was there all the time! So I only had her show up for the wedding and added in a few more lines alluding to her not being here as much as she used to in trilogy days.

“I am,” she admitted, pushing her way into his apartment. “But your daughter called me yesterday morning and said that if you didn’t call, I should check in on you. So. Here I am. And I know you’re not just sick.”

Kids these days indeed! Like Phoenix didn’t feel bad enough, his own daughter had to go and parent him. “Look, Maya, everything’s fine. I’m sorry Trucy made you think something was wrong.”

One writing tip I got and I’ve been working on implementing is like... trying to have a general idea of what every character is up to when they’re not “on screen”, so to speak. Even then, what they’re thinking about when they’re not the POV focus. So basically after the call with Trucy just prior to this scene, she immediately decided to call Maya (because she could tell something was Off with her dad and Miles, given his reaction when she mentioned his name,) and then told her to check up on him because he really scared her during that phone call... though she wouldn’t admit it. She basically saw it as a hint of returning to a sort of... disbarment-era depression, which she didn’t want, so she wanted to make sure someone could check in on him as soon as he could since she couldn’t.

Also another small aspect of Phoenix characterization (that’s going to be like 99% of my commentary about this fic I’m sorry) is that the way he deals best with depression is like... being around people, and doing things with people. It’s obviously not a method that works for everyone, but it keeps him from dwelling on things and kind of gives him a purpose, helps him feel like he’s needed. Mostly got this headcanon from RFTA where he says he was unable to take on any cases when Maya was gone until Ema showed up... and then even at the beginning of 2-2 he does seem pretty down. Trucy kind of knows some of this since she was the main thing keeping him together during disbarment era, at least enough to know that when Phoenix is depressed he’ll do much better if he’s got someone he cares about around.

Anyways, Trucy probably told Maya just to call in, because she knows her aunt is busy and part of the reason Maya hasn’t been around much is because she’s stuck with all sorts of Master responsibilities at Kurain, but Maya herself wanted to come down and check on Phoenix in person because she knows how he can get and if it was enough to worry Trucy, then she was pretty worried too.

Maya planted her hands on her hips. “No way, mister. I did not take a two hour train ride down here for you to tell me everything’s fine. Do you know how difficult it was to get permission to leave?! I had to pull the old ‘I need to visit my boyfriend’ card for them to let me go!”

Phoenix groaned, despite himself. “Have they still not caught on about that?”

“Their desperation for an heir has blinded them to common sense. They made me drink some disgusting fertility tea before I left, so you really owe me one.” She lowered her hands and sighed. “Look, Nick, I know something’s up. So talk to me. Please.”

I took a few liberties to sprinkle in my Kurain headcanons in here... which I’ve rambled about more in depth elsewhere, so I won’t go into too much detail, but basically: hereditary spiritual power leads to a lot of pressure on people who have said hereditary spiritual power to reproduce so they can pass it on to the next generation. Particularly with Maya (and Pearls to some extent though I believe Maya would willingly take the heat on it) since the two of them are the only remaining spirit channelers of the Kurain technique. And since it took Maya a really long time to become the Master officially (I don’t buy the idea that she wasn’t skilled enough by the end of T&T, my headcanon is the Master training process involves two years in Khura’in but she put that off until Phoenix was in the clear regarding Kristoph stuff) they probably don’t want her leaving the village to “goof off” unless she’s doing it to produce an heir. her biological clock is ticking! haha! (... ugh.)

And this kind of leads to -- in the elaborate backstory of this fic that I can only touch on through DVD commentaries which is like half the reason I do these things -- Maya and Phoenix agreeing that if Maya needs to get out of the village but whoever the other people in the village are start putting pressure on her, she can say she’s “visiting her boyfriend” who they think is Phoenix but really isn’t... and I guess they assume they’re getting up to heir-making activities but oh darn! didn’t work this time! guess I’ll have to go again next week! (obviously they’re just out getting burgers or something.)

Hence people in the village pushing fertility tea on her because they think the problem is that she’s not getting pregnant... although they’re kind of misunderstanding the reason why she’s not getting pregnant... because no amount of fertility tea in the world will lead to a spontaneous pregnancy without other activities first. which aren’t happening. I feel like I need to clarify this multiple times just in case someone misunderstands.

Pearls both knows about this agreement and knows that Phoenix and Maya aren’t actually dating because she’s like nineteen now? She’s probably known for years, she never brings it up during DD and SOJ.

“I won’t go into much detail” oops. I’m so sorry.

Phoenix didn’t say anything.

Maya took him by the arm and guided him to the couch, plopping him down none-too-gently before sitting next to him. “You can trust me, right?” she asked. “You’re my best friend. I’m here for you, even if you did something really stupid.”

Phoenix laughed a bit. “Yeah… I did something really stupid.”

“Okay. Tell me.”

Phoenix buried his face in his hands with a sigh, then rolled his head to peek through his fingers at Maya. She looked — angry, sure, he wasn’t exactly being the most cooperative of people right now, but — open. Prepared. Like she was actually going to listen.

I know that SOJ called Miles Phoenix’s best friend, which don’t get me wrong I absolutely loved, but I do wish Maya was ALSO considered Phoenix’s best friend if not one of his closest friends, because they’re so obviously best friends. They’re a different flavour of best friends than Phoenix and Miles, because Phoenix and Miles are the “it’s complicated and there are secret romantic feelings possibly but we trust each other unconditionally” best friends, Phoenix and Maya have a twenty-five step secret handshake they have to execute every time upon meeting.

But of course that doesn’t mean they can’t be serious, Maya is absolutely here for her dumb best friend

“It’s…” He sighed, again. “Have you ever — have you ever wanted something for a really long time, but — but you never thought you’d get it, and then you have this chance, and you just… panic?”

Maya nodded solemnly. “Steel Samurai movie premiere tickets. I won a raffle, but I forgot I signed up for them and thought it was a hoax, and didn’t get to accept them before the deadline. The bad Wi-Fi didn’t help, either.”

“But that doesn’t mean they can’t be serious” um

The one constant among all the ace attorney main characters is that NONE OF THEM WANT TO TALK ABOUT THEIR FEELINGS EVER

Also I struggled a lot with this fic trying to figure out... exactly what was going on in Phoenix’s head, and how he would interpret what was going on in his head. I kept changing opinions all the time and it was so off before I did editing haha. Even this line is still a little weird with the “Have you ever wanted something for a really long time” because he probably shouldn’t be aware that he has wanted this for a long time. ... I’m going to stop pointing out the flaws in my own fic now--

At Phoenix’s glare, she added, “I’m just kidding. Thought I’d lighten the mood a bit. Is this about Edgeworth?”

“What makes you think that?”

“‘Cause when is it not about Edgeworth with you,” asked Maya, cutting straight to the heart of things, as always. “Did he ask you out?”

“Not even that.” Phoenix turned his gaze to the floor, ashamed. “He said he loved me. I… I told him I didn’t feel the same.”

Maya was silent for a moment. Phoenix didn’t dare look at her. “Do you?”

“I like being around him,” said Phoenix. “I like seeing him smile, and laugh, and — and he makes me happy.”

What he wouldn’t give to see Edgeworth smile and laugh at him again.

“Not what I asked, dude.”

“Nick’s being really broody again it’s GOTTA be Edgeworth...”

Anyways that second-to-last line there is sticking out at me and I’m pretty sure it’s one I wavered back and forth on deleting before deciding to keep. ... at least I think I kept it? I’m taking these from google docs so there might be a few tiny changes from the ao3 version but I don’t think there’s anything too major I changed while doing last-minute edits.

Again we run into the problem of Phoenix Is Incapable Of Admitting He’s In Love With Miles -- which is the whole psyche-locks thing that pops up in the scene after this. The psyche-locks were also a pretty last-minute addition plot-wise... I think this fic was the most I deviated from my outline, but I was pretty rushed for time so I didn’t do as much planning as I normally would.

Hm I think there’s another ask where I can talk more about the psyche-locks? I’ll talk a bit here because I put a lot of thought into it. Basically I ran with the idea of black psyche-locks hiding something even the owner isn’t aware of, and that those psyche-locks are (typically? who knows about Kristoph) inflicted through traumatic events. Phoenix has three because I came up with three main Issues he had to work through, but some of them kind of blend together... two of them came up through specific traumatic events (Phoenix guesses them in chapter 8) and another one is just general overall trauma. if no one brings up the particular scenes by the time I get to that other ask, I’ll talk more about them, but basically there are three locks from three separate traumas and three occasions where they break -- someone guessed one of the breaking scenes on the narumitsu discord, but no one’s brought up the other two yet!

Long-winded way of saying that the psyche-locks are the reason that Phoenix can’t admit that he’s in love with Miles yet... and it’s kind of a cheap fantasy visualization of the trauma, basically? Maybe not the most elegant way of addressing it, but I never claimed to be writing for a series which addresses issues elegantly.

“But — but can you even imagine it?” Phoenix demanded, raising his head to gesture fully at the ridiculousness of it all. “Me and Edgeworth?”

“Yeah,” said Maya, simply. “It’s not that hard, really.”

Phoenix had no response.

“You two balance each other out well, and you trust each other, and you both care a ton about each other,” Maya elaborated. “If you love him, what’s the problem?”

oh Phoenix you have no idea. you and Miles are so easy to imagine together that you’re the number one pairing on ace attorney ao3 by a longshot.

Also one thing I kind of wanted to avoid was less of the... “you and Miles are PERFECT for each other how do you not SEE this” thing. nothing against the trope, of course! Just the whole concept of people shipping their friends intensely is something I’m not super familiar with and tbh would make me pretty uncomfortable...? It’s sort of the deal with rpf. Of course this is fanfiction with fictional characters but from an in-universe perspective...

So Maya’s taking the approach of more “Yeah, I can see you and Edgeworth as a couple, I think you’d work well together” rather than “you two are SO perfect together and I’ve been shipping you since 2016!!” because while that may be what Maya is THINKING it’s definitely not what Phoenix needs to hear right now.

“It just… seems like a recipe for disaster. I wouldn’t even know how to… like, this isn’t my first time feeling like this, but when I think about us, me and Edgeworth, it’s…” Why couldn’t he find the right words? “It’s too much.”

Maya brought a hand to her chin and tilted her head thoughtfully. “So — tell me if I’ve got this right — you like Edgeworth too, but for some reason, when he confessed to you, you panicked and you don’t know why.”

“I guess…” Phoenix returned his face to the comforting darkness of his hands. “I don’t know what it is. I-I shouldn’t have a problem, right? But the thought of a-actually admitting that I… or being in a relationship, it feels like I’m standing at the edge of a cliff and am about to fall off.”

Maya was silent for a long time. Phoenix just hoped that whatever she said next, it would somehow magically fix all his problems.

Instead, she said the most ridiculous thing Phoenix could possibly imagine. “Maybe you have trust issues?”

It certainly lightened the mood. Phoenix threw his head back and laughed harder than he had in a long time.

Phoenix is a very trusting person, absolutely, but you can’t tell me this man walked out of the Dahlia Debacle without quite a few romance-related issues. It’s kind of a weird sort of contradiction...

“No, I’m serious,” she persisted, through his laughter.

“What are you talking about, Maya?” Phoenix managed to get out, once he had that fit of mirth under control. “There’s no way I have trust issues. My whole thing is trusting people and believing in people until the end, you know?”

“Yeah, I know. But trusting someone not to be a murderer is a bit different, isn’t it?”

“It’s not like that’s as far as it goes,” Phoenix argued. “I trust you, I trust all of our friends, more than just not being murderers.”

“Yeah, sure, but romance is kind of on a different level.” She leaned back into the couch thoughtfully. “When’s the last time you’ve been with anyone?”

“... At least not since I got Trucy,” Phoenix admitted, only a little shamefully. “You try hooking up with people while having the world’s most perceptive daughter who’s desperate for a ‘new mommy’.”

“Been with anyone seriously, I mean.”

Phoenix winced. “... College.”

“I rest my case, Your Honor.”

Prettty self-explanatory here, I managed to get most of my thoughts on the actual fic instead of wanting to put it in an appendix or something. Basically... you can trust people in different ways? Phoenix can trust someone to not be a murderer to the extent of putting his own life on the line for them... but when it comes to revealing any sort of details about himself, or general emotional intimacy, he’s kind of stingy about it. Of course the out-of-universe explanation is “Phoenix doesn’t talk about this stuff because we need suspense so the player keeps playing the game instead of an exposition dump as soon as the issue comes up” but I like finding in-universe explanations for out-of-universe stuff.

I think I just regurgitated my points in a few excerpts oops.

Last little comment there regarding the idea of Phoenix presumably having a casual sex life -- Iiiiii am super asexual, have known that for a long time, generally kind of squeamish about the concept and also live a very sheltered life. so I don’t know much about people hooking up... like how people just go out and do these things. But I know people do these things so I try to reference it within my limited knowledge. Anyways yeah presumably that was happening in the background throughout the trilogy in the universe of this fic. probably not an important point. i’m moving on now.

“I’m not hung up on that!” Phoenix insisted. “Iris was a good person, she was the person I trusted. I’ve known that for years, now!”

“But she did lie to you,” Maya pointed out. “And you thought she tried to kill you for five years. I dunno, if it were me, I’d have a hell of a lot of relationship issues now.”

“Do you want me to psychoanalyze you too, now, Maya? It’s not gonna be pretty.”

“Oh, no thanks, that’s what therapy’s for,” she said, far too cheerily. “But really, Nick.”

Anyways I’m pretty invested in the whole Iris-Phoenix dynamic post-Bridge to the Turnabout, because like on the one hand, hypothetically the woman you were in love with but you thought was a killer coming out to say that she actually didn’t kill anyone and was actually in love with you should resolve all your lingering relationship issues resulting from that... but I don’t see that actually happening.

It probably took Phoenix the whole five years to come to terms with the fact that Dahlia hated his guts and tried to kill him, because I do believe he was seriously hardcore in love with her at the time. Well, Iris, but he didn’t know the difference. And then finding out Iris actually loved him... but not enough to actually, say, tell him this beforehand?... makes things kind of messy. Phoenix probably thinks he should be all better now but really the whole Dahlia-Iris thing was messed up and undoubtedly messed him up a lot.

Last little bit is just me squeezing in that Maya probably also has a lot of messed up relationship issues and also definitely needs therapy. (And is getting a bit of therapy in this fic! Good for her!) I have a lot of thoughts about Maya’s trauma... but unfortunately this fic is about Phoenix so I couldn’t go too in depth about that. Sorry, Maya. One day.

Phoenix sank further into the couch. “I don’t have trust issues.”

“Y’know, there’s still a lot of stuff I don’t know about you,” said Maya. “You never tell me anything personal until there’s a murder or something and then you have to. What happened to Edgeworth, both times. The whole Dahlia thing. It took me ages to get you to tell me how you got disbarred, even! And, like, romance has this level of intimacy to it, where he’d need to know stuff about you that I wouldn’t know, that Trucy wouldn’t know. And Nick, you know I love you, but I know you’re scared of that.”

“What do you know about it?” Phoenix snapped. “You’re barely ever here.”

He felt horrible as soon as the words left his mouth. Maya gave a sharp inhale and stiffened, her eyebrows knitting above an angry and hurt glare.

“I’m sorry,” Phoenix apologized, looking at the floor. “That was… that was unfair.”

“Yeah,” said Maya. “Yeah, it was.”

yep regurgitating my points from above. Anyways, highlights: platonic “I love you”s are great, we should have more of those. Just... emphasizing that it’s platonic because the Phoenix and Maya friendship is one of my favourite things in the series.

And there’s that “You’re barely ever here” comment that I had to cut Maya out of most of this fic to fit in, because otherwise it wouldn’t make any sense. In the universe of this fic Maya was pretty distant being busy with training and spirit medium Master stuff after the trilogy... and presumably hasn’t seen Phoenix as much as either of them would like. She loves hanging out with her best friend, and probably feels super guilty too, that Phoenix is dealing with all these issues and she can’t be there because she has other responsibilities -- so obviously it upsets her when Phoenix kind of accuses her of not being there for him, because she definitely would be, if she could, and if Phoenix would let her.

Pretty much you can’t always be around for everyone all the time, Maya would be so worn out if she had to juggle coming down to the city to hang out with Phoenix all the time on top of all her other responsibilities. She knows this, Phoenix knows this too, he’s just kind of lashing out right now because he’s hurt and confused and misses all his important people, but Maya just happens to be in front of him right now.

And yeah what Phoenix said was pretty uncalled for, which he realizes right away, and Maya acknowledges -- a pretty short fight, I don’t think these two would stay mad at each other for too long.

They sat in a tense silence for some time, until Maya sighed and brushed back her hair.

“Look, I’m saying these things because I’m scared of it, too,” she said, barely above a whisper. “After Mia, and Mom… I don’t want to be left behind again.”

“Maya…”

“Just think about it, okay?” She extended a pinky towards him. “Promise.”

Reluctantly, Phoenix linked his pinky with hers. “Fine. I’ll think about it.”

points at this and says Maya’s Definitely Got Trauma From Trilogy Events then brushes it off to get off the uncomfortable emotion topics

“Good.” Maya hopped up from the couch and stretched her arms above her head. “I’ll forget about what you said if you buy me lunch, okay? I’ve got a client this evening, so I can’t stay long, but I’ve got enough time to stop by Eldoon’s.”

“If you insist,” said Phoenix with an exaggerated sigh, and Maya laughed, so Phoenix willed himself to push the conversation from his mind for now. Maya would be spending four hours on a train today for his sake; Eldoon’s really was the least he could provide.

and in true Phoenix and Maya fashion we’re just gonna forget about the emotions and go get ramen!

Anyways thanks anon for requesting this scene I apparently have so many thoughts about Phoenix and Maya friendship... sorry if this is totally incoherent I should not have started this so late it’s like 11:30! But thank you! I will do more of these tomorrow... hopefully.

#dvd commentary meme #the catch-up game #asks

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iturbide · 5 years

Note

🖊🖊🖊 👀

why are you asking this you’ve already read that old shit

but fine

in three parts since you sent three pens i hope you’re happy

This is probably the only piece of Ace Attorney fanfiction I ever put online, though it’s long gone by now. The whole thing was inspired by the Magnetic Fields’ song “When You’re Old and Lonely” and focuses on an Apollo Justice timeline where things between Miles and Phoenix blew up shortly after the end of Trials and Tribulations.

“Hello, you’ve reached the Wright and Co. Talent Agency, where we put our heart into every show! This is Trucy Wright speaking, how may I help you?”

“Is Phoenix there?”

“Yes, sir, one moment please – Wow, Papa, you’re really popular these days! Are you making new friends or something?”

“I don’t think so – whipping people at poker doesn’t exactly make you many frie– hey! Didn’t we talk a while ago about warning me before you go and throw the receiver over the back of the couch? Thank you, though – Hello, this is Phoenix Wright. I’m really not sure what I can do for you, since my daughter’s the one with all the tale – ”

“We need to talk, Phoenix.”

He had to stop dwelling on the past and what was lost.

How many times over the last year had Phoenix said that to him? “You have to stop dwelling on the past, Miles; it’s not healthy.”

But how could he not dwell on the past when it haunted his every waking moment, lurked in his sleep, defied the gentle warmth of a puppy’s love and left him waiting out the interminable darkness with a tiny weight curled upon his chest? How could he not hold tight to that idea of what could have been when the days were still too long, too cold, that hollow numbness somewhere in him left untouched?

“Miles? Are you okay?”

“No, Phoenix, I’m not.”

It had taken him too long to realize that fact; he had noticed the passage of time before he grasped what was truly amiss. The void that everyone had thought was left by Pesu’s passing – even Miles had been convinced of it on more than one occasion, after trying so desperately to regain that lost chance and having Phoenix tell him so sadly, so indulgently, what was supposedly wrong – was still there. Something may have eased now, but there was still that hollow loneliness aching in his chest.

“What’s wrong, Miles? Are you all right? Do you need – ”

“I need you to listen, Phoenix. That’s what I need right now.”

He had considered, for theatricality, taking Phoenix back to that restaurant they had visited so long ago, where everything had gone awry; unfortunately, that particular establishment had closed six years ago, replaced by a paycheck advancement firm of poor repute that would doubtless be replaced again within the coming years. He had considered going there despite the fact that the restaurant was gone, simply for the sake of closure…

…and in the end, he knew that if he wanted Phoenix to listen to him, he would have to be straightforward. No theatrics, no fitting closure on that particular chapter of his life…

…but closure, nonetheless.

“…all right…? Miles, what’s this about?”

“Honestly, Phoenix, I would have preferred to do this in person, but I suppose that this will have to do on such short notice. Again, I must thank you for little Turnabout – though I must say, your daughter’s choice of names is rather appalling; sadly, it’s the only name he’ll respond to – but that’s really not the point. Or, rather, only part of it. You said to me, on more occasions than I care to count, that all of my attempts, all of my ‘dredging up the past,’ as you’ve put it, have been out of simple loneliness from the passing of Pesu. Correct?”

“Y-yes, I think we talked about that – ”

“I’m afraid you were wrong, Phoenix. You were wrong, just as I was years ago.”

“Miles, don’t – ”

“Don’t what, Phoenix? You know just as well as I do that despite all your selflessness, all your attempts to hold me at arm’s length, to keep me from getting hurt, you still feel the same way you did back then. It’s been bothering me for a while, actually – ”

“Miles – ”

“You’re not listening, Phoenix. It’s been bothering me, just how emphatically you denied any thought that this could be more, that this loneliness might well be something beyond simple remorse over the passing of my dog. Yes, I loved Pesu. Yes, he was my companion for almost twenty years. Yes, I missed him, and do still miss him. But Phoenix, it’s still there. Even with your little Turnabout to keep me company at all hours, it’s still there.”

“…what’s…still there…?”

“The loneliness.”

“You have to give it more time, Miles. Turnabout can’t take Pesu’s place, but he’ll still be good company, you just have to give him a little more than a month –”

“You don’t understand, Phoenix. Turnabout is not the issue here. In fact, in a way, you are. You’re doing it again, shoving this emotion off on the dog, never letting yourself even begin to consider that perhaps, perhaps this is more. You’ve never thought – well, perhaps that’s not the correct way to phrase it; you’ve always thought that it could be something more, but you never allowed yourself to consider it. You’ve been trying to save yourself as much as you’ve been trying to help me, haven’t you, Phoenix? You didn’t want to be hurt again. Like last time.”

“Please, Miles, just leave it – ”

“I can’t leave it, Phoenix. You can’t seem to accept the fact that I might have been wrong. That I might have been the one to act rashly, that I might have been the one that made a mistake. Did you know, Phoenix, that I have regretted that response from the day I uttered it?”

“Come on, Miles – ”

“Listen to me, please. For once, just listen, don’t pass judgment. Phoenix, I regret what I said that night, I regret how I treated you, I regret…everything that happened between us because of it. I hurt you, deeply, and for that, I am truly, deeply sorry. But you need to understand, Phoenix, that you are not a replacement, you are not some sort of settlement, you are not a way to fill the simple loneliness that we as human beings feel on occasion. You are…you are the one person that has ever even begun to fill the void, the one person who has reached out and touched it and made me realize just how hollow life had been, and has been ever since…Turnabout is nothing but the temporary solution for a deeper issue. Phoenix, I beg you…give me a chance, now. Please, don’t turn me away, don’t save yourself at my expense, because each time you insist that this is nothing, it only makes the pain and loneliness that much worse. Phoenix, please…give me the chance to make amends. Allow me the opportunity to see just what could come…because for years I’ve hated what I did, what I said, for how it hurt you…and what it lost me. Give me a chance, Phoenix…please…”

“… … …are you sure?”

“Yes. I’ve spent years dwelling on this matter, despite everything you’ve told me, Phoenix; I’m completely sure.”

“… … if…if you really want to try…”

“I do…I’m sorry, Phoenix, for how I’ve harmed you. Please, give me a chance…don’t concern yourself with how you might be hurt again, or how you might harm me…try to remember how you were that night, and all the plans you’d made in the hope that I would give you the chance you’re giving me now.”

“…it was a long time ago, Miles, I don’t…”

“I know you, Phoenix. You may have changed since then, but I don’t think you’ve lost that part of yourself. …would you care for dinner tonight?”

“I…I guess…? … … … okay. Sure, why not…?”

“Shall I pick you up around seven?”

“Would it be easier for me to meet you?”

“It’s no trouble. I’ll…I look forward to seeing you again, Phoenix.”

Soft, warm laughter was all that met his words. He had not heard that sound in so many years…

…Miles dared to hope that not all hope was lost.

This one never ended up posted or even finished. Again, Apollo Justice timeline, with the whole story plotting the relationship between Phoenix and Miles and the inevitable changes that come after that disastrous trial where the defense attorney was disbarred.

“You deserved to be disbarred.”

It was, perhaps, the most hateful thing Miles had ever said to Phoenix.

…and the man Miles Edgeworth had been so sure he’d known gave him the coldest look he had ever experienced, stretching out on the pale carpeting as though there was nothing left in the world that could phase him.

“You and everybody else think that.”

“So then you’re not denying it.”

Nonsensically, something tight and cold in the prosecutor’s chest crushed further inward. He’d hoped, he’d prayed, that it was nothing more than a malicious rumor stirred up by that rock and roll upstart…

“Oh, I never said that I wasn’t denying it,” Phoenix said, a midwinter smile creeping across his face. “I just said you and everybody else think I deserve what I got. I never said I did anything.”

“Then tell me.” Miles towered over the man sitting calmly on the floor, eyes that had once been alight with passion now dark and chill with something the prosecutor could not seem to fathom. “What did you do?”

A stifling, choking silence descended across them. The prosecutor found it hard to breathe as the former defense attorney looked toward the door that led into the kitchenette. The more Miles struggled for air, the less he seemed to inhale, and the further Phoenix and his foreign appearance and his sudden, absolute chill seemed to withdraw.

“I had some bad luck.”

The voice was suddenly familiar. Hauntingly familiar. And despite himself, the prosecutor found himself sitting down on the floor beside the couch, facing a broken man that he’d once called his friend. “How does forging evidence count as bad luck – ”

“I didn’t forge anything.”

Miles paused. Phoenix lifted a hand to his chest, his fingers touching the empty space where, not so long ago, a tarnished gold badge had rested.

“…you know how there were all those rumors running around about you, a long time ago?” Phoenix asked. Miles nodded to the hushed voice, the inattentive stare. “They said…they said you forged evidence. They said you arranged testimony. But you never did.”

His voice held such conviction. Such faith. Miles might have convicted a dozen men on false pretenses, and Phoenix right now neither knew nor cared. “They just never pinned you for the allegations. They were rumors. Just rumors.”

The prosecutor nodded. Phoenix’s hand clenched in the fabric of his sweatshirt, the material clustering under his fingers to fill an unimaginably vast void.

“I knew it was fishy.” Miles suddenly feared that the defense attorney – former defense attorney; it was so difficult to force himself to say it – would cry, the way his tone threatened to break under the strain of memory. “I knew it was suspicious, I knew it. Random evidence that winds up being decisive just falling into your lap at the beginning of a trial? That’s not possible. It just doesn’t happen. And I didn’t want to use it. It was the last thing I wanted to do, use that…but what other choice did I have? If I didn’t show it, my client would have been declared guilty due to lack of evidence refuting the prosecution’s claim. And what if it was legit? What if it really was the decisive piece of evidence that would save him?”

It was a chance too good to be true. They both knew it. But Phoenix had taken the chance.

Phoenix would be standing proud with his badge had he not.

“You can guess what happened.” Phoenix laughed, a miserable travesty of a sound. “It wasn’t real. How could it be? It was too lucky. Turns out it was a forgery. They never proved I commissioned it, just that it was forged. …but that didn’t change the fact that I showed it in court. And then they levied the penalty on my client. It wasn’t even his fault, it wasn’t his burden to have to bear. It was my stupid mistake, it was my God damn mistake.” His voice lifted, thinned and cracked against the silence…and Miles listened to him breathe, watched the tremors running through his hand and the pain that spasmed unbidden through his expression. “It was my mistake, but they still tried to declare him guilty. …and even if he did disappear, that didn’t save my badge.”

“Had you not shown the evidence, you would have saved your badge,” Miles said.

“Would that really have been any better, though? Sending an innocent man to jail because I didn’t take a chance? That’s what I do. It may be stupid – God, what am I talking about, it is stupid – but that’s what I do. Maggey would still be in prison if I hadn’t bluffed with the ear medicine. Maya might be dead had we not run false trails toward Adrian.”

Phoenix lifted his head, leveling a hopeless stare on the prosecutor’s face. Something in Miles stopped, crackling and crumbling away at the pain in that once familiar man.

“Had I not made those stupid wild guesses, you might be in prison now.”

…Miles found he had nothing at all to say.

“Three years. Not a bad run,” Phoenix said, trying to laugh and failing. “I managed to help people. That’s…that’s the important thing, I guess.”

“Phoenix – ”

That solemn stare fixed itself upon him as the…former defense attorney prepared to stand, finally releasing the fabric that might well have concealed a wound. The words Miles did not even have died in the back of his throat. “…did you forge that evidence?” he finally asked. “Did you commission it?”

Phoenix shook his head, the smile on his face steady and sure, despite its thinness, like ice ready to crack under the least pressure. “You should know me better than that, Miles.”

The implication burned as much as he knew the red mark on Phoenix’s cheek must.

“Of course I didn’t. I’m not that kind of attorney.”

Of course he wasn’t. Miles knew that.

Miles should have known that.

Last but not least, my magnum opus for the Ace Attorney fandom. Inspired by another fic I stumbled across ages ago, it’s timeline divergent, going off in a new direction following Trials and Tribulations, aka Phoenix never got disbarred. Rocky relationships ensue, terrible things happen, and a ridiculously dramatic case drops where Miles ends up accused for murder a second time – but this time, Phoenix isn’t there to defend him from the charges.

It had been a long day. The courtroom had been a battleground, the back and forth vicious and the cuts deep. It had left him feeling exhausted. Drained. And now all he wanted was rest.

He closed the filing cabinet on the latest case notes, and leaned his forehead against the cold metal. Another innocent saved. That was his solace, tonight. He had found truth, and justice had been done. He held that knowledge close, and tried to warm his heart with it.

The Steel Samurai theme sounded. He sighed and fished the phone from his pocket, checking the name and number displayed on the lit face.

…he considered letting it go to voicemail.

But no. He couldn’t do that. Best to clear the air now.

“Hi.” No formality, no introduction. They’d moved beyond that long ago. He walked to the window and looked down at the street, mostly empty at this hour but for a few cars making their ways, one by one, to the Gatewater’s impressive parking garage. “I just finished the last of the paperwork.”

The road was dark between the street lamps. The voice over the phone was quiet. But the words were familiar, and he closed his eyes.

“I’m tired, Miles.”

Down to his bones, he was tired. It was a dance that had no joy in it, and he could not carry on.

“No.” It had nothing to do with court. His pride had taken enough abuse in the past, this was nothing new. “…I can’t keep this up.” He was starving, slowly, too many sacrifices and never any gains. Call it selfish, but he needed more than he was given (but then, what was he given, but what he didn’t need?). He smiled, and shook his head, though the gesture was lost across the airways. “Nothing that wouldn’t be out of character.”

Silence. Silence here was rarely a blessing. He missed the energy and bustle of the office during business hours, even when the hours were just spent watching re-runs of the Steel Samurai. The loneliness weighed too heavily on him now, and he didn’t know how to ease it.

The door opened. He pulled the phone away from his ear, briefly. “I’m sorry, we’re closed.”

“This won’t take long.”

Gunfire was the last thing he heard.

#answered #gunhorse #ace attorney #writing #fanfiction #in order from oldest to newest i'm pretty sure #i had to hunt the first one down on an ancient machine i hope you're happy #these are so old but not actually as bad as i'd feared #there was some surprisingly good stuff in some of those actually #like how did i lose some of these turns of phrase #snippets

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misscrawfords · 7 years

Text

Sparkling like granite?

So ITV is making a new adaptation of Pride and Prejudice which is going bring out its “darker tones”.

Here are my thoughts at considerable length (which nobody asked for) about this adaptation (which nobody asked for).

My initial response was mixed. On the one hand, I’m actually not averse to a new adaptation of P&P. Sure, it’s over-adapted and there are lots of novels which deserve a multi-part adaptation more than P&P. (Mansfield Park? The novels of Fanny Burney, Maria Edgeworth, Walter Scott?) However, P&P is one of the world’s most popular novels and there hasn’t been a straight TV adaptation of it in over 20 years. Adaptations of P&P often say as much about the time in which they are made as they do about the source material and a good adaptation, even if one doesn’t necessarily agree with the choices made, can make you see the book in a new light and provoke discussion. I’m not averse to that.

So there’s that response of muted interest. That warred with deep misgivings about the “darker tones” of Austen’s “adult” novel which is “much less bonnet-y” in an adaptation by someone who has apparently never watched an adaptation of the book, despite loving it. Really? Has she been living under a rock? P&P is so much part of popular culture that it seems impossible to adapt it in a way that does not pay homage consciously or subconsciously to previous adaptations. Can one avoid a “post-modern moment” as Lost in Austen so delightfully made explicit? I’m deeply sceptical. (Does one even want to? Intertextuality can add so much... but that’s a discussion for another day.) Anyway, back to the “darker tones”. My instinct is to say that this seems terribly wrong. Of all Austen novels, P&P is the most light-hearted, the most sparkling, the most comforting. Why oh why, would you want to mess with that? For goodness sake, let us have our romantic comedies and laugh out loud satire and implausible happy endings! Why must everything be marred with the brush of making things grim and dark and equating that grimness with gritty reality? Reality may be sometimes grim and dark but it is also sometimes hilarious and warm and full of love. Why must the former be prioritised? I have a massive problem with reinterpreting texts to “make them dark” as if that is a naturally good thing. But that’s probably also a discussion for another day.

So, mixed feelings. But naturally the purists are up in arms about this idea (and a part of me certainly wants to join them) and that makes me desperately inclined to take a second look and examine the possibilities of this adaptation and some of the potentially intriguing things the writer has said.

“Darker tones”

Okay, so firstly what does this mean? Does P&P even have darker tones? Surely you have to squint? Weeeeeell, yes and no. It’s a mistake to assume Austen never wrote about the nastier aspects of human nature and experience. The more obvious examples (leaving out Mansfield Park’s troubled potential references to the slave trade) are the fate of Colonel Brandon’s ward, Eliza; the decline of Mrs. Smith; the condition of the Prices in Portsmouth; the fate of Maria Rushworth; General Tilney’s treatment of his wife - and of course Wickham’s role in P&P. Just because Austen doesn’t write rape, seduction, abuse, death etc. explicitly on the page and just because her novels end (mostly) happily doesn’t mean she lives in a fantasy world untouched by these things.

Let’s look at Wickham. He attempted to seduce a vulnerable 15 year old girl who knew him and trusted him and used a woman in a position of authority to her to gain access to her. To use modern terminology, how long, one wonders, had he been grooming Georgiana? The elopement was prevented but only just. And while Darcy clearly thinks his sister’s reputation is intact (and her virtue), is it? Could Wickham have persuaded Georgiana to sleep with him before the elopement? I don’t personally think so - I think she would have somehow told Darcy if that had happened - but it is a possible and interesting idea, even if I don’t know where you would go with that except to show what an awful person Wickham is... which we know.

Wickham then successfully elopes with another 15 year old girl in a vulnerable position away from her family a year later - this is looking like a pattern of a rather unhealthy interest in underage girls (again to use modern theory, which is dangerous as an interpretation but sometimes useful). He’s the same age as Darcy after all - 28. Not an unheard of age gap in those days but still creepy considering the vulnerable positions of the girls in question. Lydia is ruined and by proxy, so are her sister’s chances. Wickham causes a LOT of problems by this one act. And all to get revenge on Darcy for refusing to give him money after he spent all his.

There is, moreover, the Meryton gossip: “He was declared to be in debt to every tradesman in the place, and his intrigues, all honoured with the title of seduction, had been extended into every tradesman’s family.”

Is this true? Has he been seducing (raping?) respectable girls in Meryton? Who knows! This is the wisdom of Mrs. Phillips after all. But they are talking about it openly in the text, there is rarely smoke without fire and it would hardly be out of character.

Is this sufficiently dark? It’s certainly not exactly a riotous comedy. Pride and Prejudice from the point of view of a Meryton tradesman’s daughter who loses her virtue and her father his money would be a very different novel. Georgiana’s history bears close examination. As with Eleanor Tilney’s story in Northanger Abbey, a real Gothic tale right under Catherine’s nose which she doesn’t even notice, there’s something pretty horrible going on in P&P if you care to look.

Perhaps this is what the writer Raine means by “actually a very adult book”.

What else could that refer to? (Because I give her sufficient credit to assume she’s not going to add in random pornographic scenes for the sake of it. Honestly.)

Jane Bennet. Jane is basically depressed for the duration of the novel. Elizabeth constantly worries over her low-spirits and concern for her affects her own happiness. In fact, Elizabeth herself is miserable for a lot of the novel. She goes on a journey of self-discovery but that comes at a cost. She is affected by Charlotte’s marriage, Jane’s disappointment, her own disappointment in Wickham, the effect of reading Darcy’s letter, Lydia’s elopement and finally realising she loves Darcy and will never have him. That’s a lot to throw at even the most resilient, good-humoured and optimistic person. Just because Lizzy loves to laugh doesn’t mean she is not unhappy in some way or other for a lot of the novel. For example:

After disappointment re Bingley and Wickham:

“Oh! if that is all, I have a very poor opinion of young men who live in Derbyshire; and their intimate friends who live in Hertfordshire are not much better. I am sick of them all. Thank Heaven! I am going to-morrow where I shall find a man who has not one agreeable quality, who has neither manner nor sense to recommend him. Stupid men are the only ones worth knowing, after all.”

“Take care, Lizzy; that speech savours strongly of disappointment.”

(I am always struck by the great bitterness in Elizabeth’s humour in that scene. It’s often overlooked IMO.)

After reading Darcy’s letter:

...it may be easily believed that the happy spirits which had seldom been depressed before, were now so much affected as to make it almost impossible for her to appear tolerably cheerful.

The only other use of the word “depressed” in the novel also applies to Elizabeth.

When Lydia has returned with Wickham:

Elizabeth could bear it no longer. She got up, and ran out of the room; and returned no more, till she heard them passing through the hall to the dining parlour.

You’ve got to be pretty much at the end of your tether to run out of the room at the age of 20 because you cannot bear to hear your sister talking any more.

Elizabeth is not happy. Jane is not happy. Mrs. Bennet is certainly not happy. Sure, it’s a comedy and Elizabeth has the delightful ability to laugh at herself and others and Jane tries very hard to overcome low spirits and always sees the best and Mrs. Bennet absolutely must be a caricature or else the humour is lost and everything becomes terribly heavy and not like the novel at all, but we feel triumphant with Elizabeth at the end precisely because she has actually suffered so much along the way in very human ways - romantic disappointment, losing a friend to a lifestyle choice she can’t understand, family troubles... These are not the things of epic but that doesn’t make them unimportant. The Lizzie Bennet Diaries conveys this aspect of the characters so well without losing the comedy. It is possible. Certainly I don’t think any other period adaptation has succeeded so well and I would love to see an adaptation that does. It’s not graphic sex, but I would describe this as in the realm of adult themes.

“Much less bonnet-y”

Okay, I don’t really know what this means. I suspect it’s a dig at the period dramas of the 1980s and 90s with beautiful aesthetics and no dirt and everyone speaking very properly. I thought we got the reaction to that overwith in the 00s and I really don’t want more sackcloths and pigs in the corridors, please. Ladies in that period wore bonnets. Get over it. This strikes me as the most provocative statement in all the things that were said, but it is also largely meaningless without more context. Productions like Poldark and Victoria have made an effort with costumes and sets so I don’t see why this would skimp on them. Will it be set in the 1790s this time with more of a rompish Georgian feel than a neo-classical Regency tone? Time only will tell!

"I hope I do justice to Austen’s dark intelligence – sparkling, yes, but sparkling like granite.”

Now this intrigues me! This is what makes me curious and also hopeful. Because Austen pulled no punches and had a very good understanding of dark impulses and the awful ridiculousness of human behaviour - and she absolutely skewered it.

In Paragon we met Mrs. Foley and Mrs. Dowdeswell with her yellow shawl airing out, and at the bottom of Kingsdown Hill we met a gentleman in a buggy, who, on minute examination, turned out to be Dr. Hall — and Dr. Hall in such very deep mourning that either his mother, his wife, or himself must be dead.

Mrs. B. and two young women were of the same party, except when Mrs. B. thought herself obliged to leave them to run round the room after her drunken husband. His avoidance, and her pursuit, with the probable intoxication of both, was an amusing scene.

I give you joy of our new nephew, and hope if he ever comes to be hanged it will not be till we are too old to care about it.

How horrible it is to have so many people killed! And what a blessing that one cares for none of them!

You get the point. All expressed in very nicely balanced phrases and a genteel tone and they are very amusing - but what sentiments! In short, I think Raine’s description of Austen’s wit and intelligence actually very apt. Similar things are found in P&P as in her letters. Consider Mr. Collins.

You ought certainly to forgive them, as a Christian, but never to admit them in your sight, or allow their names to be mentioned in your hearing.

Ouch.

“She had better have stayed at home,” cried Elizabeth; “perhaps she meant well, but, under such a misfortune as this, one cannot see too little of one’s neighbours. Assistance is impossible; condolence insufferable. Let them triumph over us at a distance, and be satisfied.”

A nice thing to say about your friends and neighbours...

Next to being married, a girl likes to be crossed a little in love now and then. It is something to think of, and it gives her a sort of distinction among her companions. When is your turn to come? You will hardly bear to be long outdone by Jane. Now is your time. Here are officers enough in Meryton to disappoint all the young ladies in the country. Let Wickham be your man. He is a pleasant fellow, and would jilt you creditably.”

“Thank you, sir, but a less agreeable man would satisfy me. We must not all expect Jane’s good fortune.”

“True,” said Mr. Bennet, “but it is a comfort to think that whatever of that kind may befall you, you have an affectionate mother who will make the most of it.”

Such kind parental support!

Mr. Bennet’s sarcasm, Mr. Collins’ pomposity which is eventually revealed as truly cold-hearted, Elizabeth’s biting and often undeserved satire, Mrs. Bennet’s foolishness - all of these are funny and the adaptation must make them funny. The dialogue must glitter and shine or you lose the absolute light-hearted sparkling joy of the novel and everything becomes heavy. But there’s an edge to the humour, there really is. And you treat like the stereotype of Sunday night bonnets and swoonable men jumping in lakes to romantic soundtracks at your peril.

You know what, I’m willing to give someone who describes Austen as “sparkling like granite” a shot. Love and Friendship for the first time presented an Austen adaptation that took absurdity, satire and caricature as its starting point in adapting Austen and I would love to see an adaptation of P&P that did the same, with all the greater subtlety that this novel requires over several hours, considering that it is a beautiful love story as well.

Will this adaptation deliver? Who knows? And there are a lot of things to be concerned about in this endeavor. But it might be really quite interesting.

tl;dr Austen is uncomfortable funny, she has a dark side, but they can’t make the adaptation dark and grim because that misses the point.

#Pride and Prejudice #Jane Austen #period drama

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ladyloveandjustice · 7 years

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The Great Ace Attorney Replay: Investigations, Case 5

Haha omg I forgot how amazing this part was where we hear MURDEROUS COMMOTION and it’s Kay’s instinct to run DIRECTLY TOWARD IT and then they won’t let her in the embassy so she’s like “I’LL JUST GO AROUND THE OTHER SIDE AND JUMP THE FENCE SEE YOU LATER MR. EDGEWORTH.”

And Miles is like “what. what the fuck. Kay what. no. WHAT IS HAPPENING” and runs after her only to see Kay has run DIRECTLY TOWARD A BURNING BUILDING and he just stands there for a second. in despair.

Miles: I CAN’T BELIEVE THIS. KAY YOU HAVE BETTER BE ALL RIGHT.

MILES’ CURSE IS TO HAVE HIS LOVED ONES BE PEOPLE WHO LITERALLY RUN DIRECTLY AT RAGING FIRES WITH ZERO THOUGHT WITH THE FULL INTENTION OF POSSIBLY CONFRONTING A MURDERER ON THE LOOSE.

LIKE THIS IS A THING HE’S HAD TO DEAL WITH TWICE. AMAZING.

Like we were all wondering what Miles reaction would be if he had been there at the bridge when Phoenix did his thing but we are now basically seeing what it would have been like now. Kay has provided. Miles is a Ravenclaw and both his unofficial adopted daughter AND his husband are Gryffindors who run into raging fires i feel so sorry for him.

At least Gumshoe’s a Hufflepuff and Fran’s a Slytherin. He’s not like. completely surrounded.

Kay did not literally run into the fire but she ran pretty close to it and is now being accused of murder as is the Ace Attorney way. Miles doggedly proves her innocence and Kay is all “YAY YOU BELIEVED IN ME RIGHT” and Miles is like “n-not really”. This is hilarious because 1. he literally just spent a half hour yelling about how he believed in her and then is like “well no i didn’t” are you fucking kidding me miles

and 2. While his instinct is to deny it here, he’s going to scream “I believe in you” directly to her about 20 times in the next game. without shame or restraint and with a fervor that would make even Phoenix Wright go “dang”. CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT.

Omg I had no idea we got Dad Miles so early on with Kay because I never messed with this dialogue last time. And KAY ACTUALLY CALLS HIM ON IT IT’S BEAUTIFUL

Miles: Kay, I’m glad you weren’t hurt, but please refrain from such recklessness in the future. What if you had run into the real Yatagarasu? You could have been killed!

Kay: Sorry to make you worry like that…I’ll be more careful from now on.

Miles: Good girl. It’s good to conduct some self-reflection once in a while.

Kay: Eheheheh…It’s funny you know, when I talk with you, Mr. Edgeworth, it’s like I’m talking with my father.

Miles: I-is that so? (Do I really seem that old to her?)

LIKE WOW JUST STAB ME IN THE HEART SHE CAME OUT AND SAID IT.

“WELL I’D BETTER CHECK ON THESE STEEL SAMURAI VIDEOS. FOR CLUES. MY, THE THINGS I PUT MYSELF THROUGH FOR THE SAKE OF INVESTIGATION”

Miles….sweetie.

There is nothing that’s not amazing about the part where they tell Miles he can’t investigate as a prosecutor and he’s like “OKAY BUT WHAT IF I’M FRANZISKA’S SUBORDINATE”. Just like that. And Franziska is like “okay I absolutely know you’re just doing this because you want to investigate. But also I cannot possibly say no to this opportunity “ And spends the rest of the case reveling in her power. But it’s just kinda amazing when you think about how someone who was once the SO PROUD THE SLIGHTEST BLOW TO HIS DIGNITY SENT HIM INTO A PAIN SPIRAL now will just. be his little sister’s subordinate in the name of truth. with no shame whatsoever.

There’s also this amazing part where Franziska demands Miles address her fornally as his superior and Miles is like “no I can’t do that. you’re Franziska. ANYWAY” and it’s like, there was no way she being like I’M YOUR BOSS USE HONORIFICS in the original (since according to that “how do they talk in the original Japanese” post he often calls her by her first name with zero honorifics which awww) and was probably demanding some super extravagant one too.

What’s even better is he totally gives in two seconds later and begins addressing her as “Ms. von Karma” which means he probably gave in in the original too.

Interesting character note: Miles just directly admits to Franziska “well, we both know I’m not actually a ‘genius prosecutor’ so I do have to do some guesswork here” and she seems kind of shocked. And rightly so, because in flashback case he says “FRANZISKA YOU CAN’T RUSH ABSOLUTE GENIUS” at one point which I remember clearly because I wanted to reach through the game and shove him in a locker. But now he’s just like “yeah I’m not actually a genius guys. u know the deal fran, i’m just tryin’ my best”. That’s a really nice demonstration of character development.

Also Miles was not content with scolding Kay about what she did one time. He keeps bringing it up “you could have BEEN HURT KAY DO YOU UNDERSTAND NEVER DO ANYTHING LIKE THAT AGAIN” and she must apologize. again. Phoenix is the fun dad who lets his kids do whatever the hell they want while Miles is the dad who makes you write a fifty page annotated essay on Why You Were Wrong whenever you worry him. I mean we’d guess this about them regardless, but I’m glad the games just come out and literally demonstrate it for us.

Awww Lang is just so adorably proud and defensive of Shih-na like he is of all the people who work for him, which is sad because she’s evil. EXAMPLE:

Miles: …you know how to work people

Lang: SHE SURE DOES. THAT’S BECAUSE SHE’S ONE AWESOME WOMAN WHO KNOWS HOW THE MANAGE. (…) SHE’S MORE THAN JUST A CAPABLE SECRETARY. SHIH-NA, SHOW THE WHAT ELSE YOU’RE GOOD AT.

Gumshoe notices how much open affection Lang shows his employees and pines for that (I can’t blame him)

Miles: Are you saying I don’t do anything for my subordinates?

Gumshoe: Ack, no sir, nothing of the sort…you’re someone I really respect, sir! Even if you are a bit…too strict sometimes.

Miles: That is only a problem on your end.

Kay: WOW WAY TO BE SUPER HARD ON HIM IN RESPONSE.

Miles: (…Am I really too strict on everyone?)

is this seriously the first time you’ve ever wondered this Miles. Also I love how defensive of Gumshoe Kay is. “WAY TO PROVE HIS POINT ASSHOLE”. He definitely needs Kay around to keep it real.

I have to respect that Kay just straight up tries to beat the shit out of Callisto for murdering her dad. It wasn’t a wise move at all, since Callisto is a trained secret agent and she pulls a gun on Kay and takes her hostage. MEANWHILE MILES IS JUST LIKE “WHY. KAY. WHY”. Sorry about ur Gryffindor daughter Miles.

Anyway Kay is rescued, Lang is sad blablabla. THEN FRANZISKA IS ACCUSED OF MURDER. IT IS HER TURN AT LAST. (lol they foreshadow this earlier in the game too. Miles was defending a suspect and Fran was like “what are you sensitive because of all those times you got accused of murder’ and Miles is like “WELL MAYBE YOU SHOULD EXPERIENCE THE PAIN OF BEING FALSELY ACCUSED” and Fran was like “I’ll pass thanks”. But this is Ace Attorney Fran. You can’t avoid getting accused of murder.)

oh god and this part of the game was just impossible. i actually used up all my health a couple times and game over’d, which resulted in Franziska being DRAGGED AWAY by Lang while Miles sputtered incoherently. AND THEN THE TRUTH WAS LOST FOR ALL ETERNITY.

MILES JUST GET PHOENIX TO DEFEND HER HE’LL FIGURE IT OUT. And he would have willingly done it too. Especially if Miles asked him. But also probably even if Miles didn’t ask him. “I KNOW YOU AND EVEN THOUGH YOU’RE SUPER MEAN TO ME WE BONDED A COUPLE TIMES SO I’M COMING TO YOUR RESCUE” that’s just. classic Phoenix. and she would have been SO MAD about it. SO MAD. Okay I’m calling it this is totally what happened in the alternate game over universe and it was hilarious.

But it turns out Lang didn’t actually think Franziska did it and just wanted Miles to figure stuff out. YET HE’S STILL TOTALLY WILLING TO ARREST FRANZISKA IF WE LOSE. OKAY.

omg if you go through all the interrogation options there are QUITE A FEW TIMES when Kay is preparing to just punch Alba in the face and Miles is like “KAY NO”. (More difference between Miles and Phoenix and the gang: Miles is all “OMG VIOLENCE IS WRONG” at Kay but when Athena wants to punch someone it’s all “okay sure as long as no one catches you”.)

Anyway I can’t blame her, cracking Alba is tedious as hell. Though it does have an amazing amount of Steel Samurai fanboying from Miles and he goes “WHAT WOULD ~THAT MAN~ WHO NEVER GIVES UP AND CAN DO ANYTHING DO I MUST DRAW ON HIS STRENGTH” but y’know. AND SO WE FINISH INVESTIGATIONS. It was fun.

#the great ace attorney replay #long post

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brokensmileswritings · 8 years

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Chapter 4 Beta read version

It was too much for Apollo to take in. After seeing his boss being hauled away in handcuffs, he wasn’t sure where he stood at this point since his mind was a whirlwind of emotions and thoughts. Who would take him on now- a defence attorney who incarcerated his own boss?

Yet, at the same time, here he was being offered an opportunity of a lifetime. Phoenix Wright, now cleared of murder for the third time and his idol, was offering him a job.

Apollo watched the man sitting on the other side of the booth from him, sipping his coffee, the magician girl sitting quietly beside him. It turned out that her name was Trucy and she was Mr Wright’s adopted daughter, having adopted her after the last trial he had taken as a defence attorney.

“Penny for your thoughts, Apollo.” The older man’s concern was touching as the younger looked down at his cup of coffee.

“I… have so many questions… like..” Apollo stopped, flushing beet red. “How did this happen to you? You were a respected attorney with a promising career. How could everyone just… lose faith in you?”

Mr. Wright looked serious for a moment, his fingers toying absentmindedly with the handle of his coffee cup. “It’s a long story, Apollo. “

“I have time. It’s not like I will do anything else now I am unemployed,” Apollo muttered tartly. “How can I trust you, especially after what you just told me?”

As he now knew, when Olga had said in her testimony that Mr Wright had *strangled* Shadi Smith, she was out right lying. Mr. Wright hadn’t strangled him; all he had done was take a locket that was around the victim’s neck.

When Mr. Wright paused to take another sip of coffee, Trucy took that moment to excuse herself, slipping out from the booth and walking toward the front counter. Mr. Wright turned to Apollo after she was lost to sight. “Shadi Smith was Trucy’s biological father.” Mr. Wright’s voice was hard and clipped, taking a large swallow of his coffee. “He had no need for the locket anymore since he is dead and I am Trucy’s legal guardian. That was the reason why I took it.”

Apollo nodded, sighing, still uneasy, taking a shaky sip. He was so confused that he didn’t trust himself to speak and sat in silence until Trucy’s return a few moments later. She took one look at the expression on his face and jumped to her father’s defence, instantly divining the reason behind it.

“Polly, Daddy is a good guy!” she scolded, slipping in to sit beside her father once again and patting the back of his hand. “Sure, he is sneaky but he has a good heart!“ She looked at him, that beaming smile returning to her face. "Come and work for us!”

Trucy’s cheerful voice shattered the cloud of doubt in his mind but something about her seemed… familiar, somehow, but he couldn’t understand why.

“Wait… US? Plural?” Apollo blurted out, his face reddening slightly. “What do you mean? You work too? You’re only 15!” Surely Mr. Wright wouldn’t force his daughter to work… would he? Mr. Wright just chuckled. “The only work she does is just her homework. She uses the office to practice tricks and entertain my clients and a little magic really helps relax anyone nervous about meeting me. As I am sure you found out for yourself.”

Apollo had to agree with that one.

“Besides,” he added, a mischievous glimmer in his eye, “how else would she get her allowance?”

Apollo was beginning to understand that the man he was sitting opposite him was crafty, but a good father to his daughter. He was reminded him so much of Dhurke for a moment that Apollo closed his eyes and rubbed his wrist.

“Polly, did you know that when you are nervous, the muscles in your wrist tighten? “ Trucy inquired, her eyes flickering down to his wrist and then back up again.

“Huh??” Apollo stuttered, looking down at his bracelet in shock

Mr. Wright chuckled. “Trucy is the one that taught me how to look for tics and twitches and it looks like she found yours!” He paused for a moment, taking another sip of his coffee.“ I found out about it when I invited an old friend of mine, Larry, around for a game of cards; Truce couldn’t sleep, so she watched me. When I got drinks for everyone, she informed me of Larry’s rather obvious twitch: He sticks his tongue out when he’s thinking. After that, I sort of knew what to look for.”

Apollo nodded again. Why was talking to this man making him so nervous?

“Mr. Wright…” He stuttered, his face reddening as he struggled to make his foolish mouth work.

“Please, call me Phoenix. You can call me Mr. Wright in a professional setting. For now, we are just having a friendly chat.”

“So… how did you just give up defending the innocent? Surely a mere penalty wasn’t enough to force you into a career change? The Phoenix Wright I read about was one to never give up!”

“True” Phoenix agreed with a soft sigh, “but losing my reputation and every client I had thereafter the said penalty of guilty was certainly enough.”

“Oh.” Apollo didn’t know what to say to that so he wisely kept silent. If Mr.-Phoenix-wishes to speak of it, he’ll tell me so himself…

“ Looks like it’s story time Apollo. “

—————————————————————————

“Leave the bottle, Al,” Phoenix Wright muttered to the bar tender as he downed another glass of grape juice.

Phoenix had hit rock bottom and his last trial had been a disaster. How was he supposed to know that the diary page was fake?

“ Finally, You couldn’t resist, could you Herr Wright?”

“ Resist what? Present solid evidence?”

Damn it. Damn it all. He had been set up. Someone had given him forged evidence… Well to be honest, someone had given that little girl a forged diary page who, in turn, had given it to him. He had no one to blame but himself for being too naive, too trusting. They had even got the forger in to confirm that it had been fake.

His Bar association hearing had been a mere three months ago and the Judge’s words were still etched on his mind like that accursed diary page.

“ Mr Phoenix Wright, do you know why you have been called here?”

“Yes, Sir. I presented forged evidence in a court of law.”“

“Up until now, you have been certainly a maverick in the courtroom, but nothing less than an honest lawyer. “ The Judge’s voice was subdued. “Did you have any previous knowledge that the evidence you presented was fake?”

“No, Sir.”

“Do you know who commissioned the forgery?”

“No, Sir.”

“Until we know more about this offence, we need to punish you for your failure to properly and thoroughly validate the aforementioned evidence. Is that clear?”

“Yes, Your Honour.” Phoenix’s voice was soft, the fingers of his left hand curling into a fist at his side the only outward sign of his disquiet.

“Despite this being your first offence, we are afraid that this will incur a penalty on your legal record. You will still remain a licensed attorney for now but you are suspended for a month with immediate effect.” The Judge’s voice was sad but cold and implacable. “If you present forged evidence again in court, your punishment will involve your badge being revoked. Permanently. Case dismissed.” XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

And that was only the beginning.

Despite being a licensed attorney, all potential clients that had come to see him since then were as guilty as sin; he could tell right away thanks to the magatama that each and every one of them were nothing but criminals looking for an acquittal and dismissed them curtly. He didn’t think that the situation could possibly get any worse, that is, until the rumours started.

It seemed like every week there was now a new story circulating about how Phoenix was a has been lawyer with nasty little epithets like Phoenix Wright: the forging attorney and Phoenix Wright had forged the diary page to get his client off scott free. Those were the kinder ones.

No one trusted him and his reputation was in tatters. What good was a lawyer if all your clients were guilty as sin? He couldn’t defend a guilty client in good conscience or even do such a thing since it went against everything his stood for. The Engarde case still haunted his nightmares and, after that fiasco, he swore to never defend a guilty party again.

Phoenix himself was bitterly reminded of the sorts of rumours that had circulated about Edgeworth back when he was the demon prosecutor. And, as he reminded himself, none of those had been true about Edgeworth and these weren’t true of him, either. At least the people that mattered to him - Maya, Edgeworth, Gumshoe, Larry- didn’t believe the nasty scuttlebutt and were sticking by him during his darkest hour; he was truly grateful for their support, especially Edgeworth’s. God, I don’t know what I would do without him… Phoenix shuddered in his arms as Edgeworth held him close, whispering soft words of comfort.

As it stood now, Phoenix was at a loss as to what to do, his heart in turmoil over the circumstances that had led to this happening although he was comforted knowing that Edgeworth was doing all he could to try and find out if the penalty could be revoked.

“It would be possible to revoke the penalty if we prove that you were framed.”

Phoenix had sighed bitterly at that. Why did getting it revoked matter? He wasn’t Manfred Von Karma, for god’s sake! He wasn’t going to kill anyone for a penalty even one that had cost him his reputation. It was his own fault that he trusted the evidence in the first place and this shook his confidence in himself to the core. What if he presented forged evidence again? He would lose his badge and this time permanently.

Phoenix couldn’t risk it and, as much as he hated to do it, his course of action was clear: He would hang up his court suit. For good.

—————————————————————————

After Phoenix had finished his story, Apollo felt sympathy for the former attorney.

“Wow. I never knew.” He was silent for a moment before he spoke again, his voice thoughtful. “ By the sound of it, it looks like you were set up by someone.”

Phoenix’s expression was serious, the corners of his mouth twitching. “I’m glad to hear you say that since I’m sure I was set up, too.” His fingers clenched into a fist before relaxing again. “I would love to clear my name and return to the way things were, but it will take a lot of time and investigation.”

“But… how do you know that people will trust me to defend them?” Apollo inquired doubtfully, looking down at his bracelet once again, his expression conflicted.

Phoenix shrugged. “To be honest, I’m not sure but people trust me for legal advice these days, so why shouldn’t they trust you with a defence request? Besides, I can help find cases for you that can help give you some experience.” He paused a moment, looking him square in the face. “What do you say, Apollo? Do you want to join the Wright and Co Law Office?”

Apollo looked at the hopeful expressions on both Phoenix and Trucy Wright’s faces and he knew he couldn’t disappoint them. I have no idea if I’m really doing the right thing but…

He hesitated only a moment before replying, “OK… count me in. I accept your job offer.”

“YAY!” Trucy cheered with sheer delight and clapped her hands.

“That’s the spirit, Apollo!” Phoenix Wright smiled brightly, clapping the young man on the shoulder. “You’ll fit right in!”

“Welcome to the family, Polly!” Trucy smiled as she squeezed his arm affectionately before turning once again to look at her father.

“Welcome to the Wright and Justice Law Office, Apollo!” Phoenix beamed as he held out his hand.

Wright and Justice, eh? That has quite a nice ring to it. Apollo grinned as he took it, shaking it vigorously. Maybe this is exactly where I’m supposed to be…

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brokensmileswritings · 8 years

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One Small Change

Chapter 4- The fall of the Phoenix.