#giving edgeworth even more sisters. he needs them to stay humble

[varpusvaras]

I am having so much fun with the Lana & Miles relationship in this. This is Lana before the Trauma hit, so she has latched onto this barely adult in the prosecutor's office with all of her Big Sister Instincts. She looks at Miles and thinks that he's little brother shaped. The first time she hears little 13-year-old Franziska calling him that she just nods like yes, yes, absolutely correct. Mia does not get her at all.

Lana: he's just a baby

Mia: what the fuck

Lana: he's just a baby!

(Phoenix is honestly quite terrified of her at first, even though Lana is just standing there. Is she your friend, Miles? Oh she's a detective, fantastic, that makes me not nervous at all)

[kitamars]

in reply to your recent post about the pirate au asks: i mean, what is there to say except for "tell us everything"? you mentioned coming up with a storyline in the tags, so im obviously wondering about how the characters met, esp phoenix and miles and phoenix and maya. also, the angst?? did you implement the dl-6 incident/disbarment/any other canon angst into this somehow? so yeah, whatever you can tell us, i'm happy with it. also my god is your art good, i'm endlessly fascinated by the sketches

hehe well EVERYTHING is definitely a lot to tell but i can answer specific things like how miles and phoenix meet (and meet. and meet again) and the beginning of phoenix and maya's friendship, but half the credit also goes to my beloved wonderful friend @/rendevok for allowing me to scream in her dms ^^

so! maya and phoenix :) they meet after the disaster that is the Hawthorne affair, where dahlia accuses phoenix of murdering another man, and he's saved by the wits of one mia fey, a clever blacksmith who's looking for a way to restore her family name after... less than pleasant events in the past. she later takes on phoenix as an apprentice, bc no one else would want to deal with a commoner who's made an enemy of nobles, even if they were at fault in the end, bc the social game is dangerous

obviously, mia's efforts end about as well as they do for her in canon, and she's murdered for her snooping. phoenix then meets maya, and after helping her keep the family smith in the aftermath of the suspicions over her sister's death, they both get into shenanigans over the next couple of years, out of their incessant need to help, and their talent of literally not being able to stay out of the center of attention (unintentionally), maya is essentially phoenix's partner in arms, all through the days of the smith, up until they're forced to skip town on a stolen ship with one trucy and one pearl in tow

miles and phoenix are far more complicated than they ever need to be, but that's like, half the fun yk? they've vaguely met when they were kids, and miles obviously still inspired phoenix's general moral code. But, gregory still dies, miles is still taken in by the von karmas and all of a sudden he's just a ghost in phoenix's memory.

fast-forward years later, and miles has definitely heard phoenix's name around, especially since the mia's death. how phoenix makes a habit of taking on strays and giving them the help they need to not end up alone, and his sheer blind faith in people, and it's almost too uncomfortably close to home for miles. still, he somehow manages to actually meet phoenix! a very limited number of times though.

Miles still has a high position as an advocate, and phoenix still is only a very busy blacksmith, and travel isn't as fast as it is in the modern day. But nevertheless, phoenix's words and conversations do enough to spark the need to truly understand what went on during his father's death, it's just only unfortunate that he decides to go about it on his own (but like. Think him solving this mystery with the help of his aai buddies so he's not completely alone :))

He still leaves, and phoenix watches him go, and as happy as he is that miles is trying to figure these things out, he wishes he could help, or make him stay. what's worse is that the world's worst game of telephone ensues and now phoenix hears news of the "miles edgeworth chooses death" bit, so fun times for everyone orz

but then the gramarye affair occurs, and all of a sudden there's a bounty on phoenix's life for hiding a murderer and possessing (faked) evidence linking him to it all. it's not a situation he can talk himself out of, so he runs with his family in tow and disappears onto the sea. And miles isn't there.

So his canon disbarment era is essentially his piracy era, and the changes are obvious. He's more jaded and cynical, and painfully efficient to a fault. You wouldn't be able to recognise the humble blacksmith anywhere in those eyes, and he knows it. whatever was left of him was buried onshore before they set sail, and he hasn't looked back since.

Miles only hears brief hearsay about the events of the gramarye affair and he's absolutely stunned because there is no way the phoenix he remembers could ever be the same as the criminal they're describing who's disappeared, but it's been long enough that he hesitates at the thought of searching for the man himself, he's not sure his presence would be warmly received either. However he doesn't have to wonder anymore, bc his latest voyage is interrupted by a pirates ambush, and it's led by the ghost of a man he never thought he'd see again.

From then on its only a matter of miles being taken as hostage, and as a bargain, receiving phoenix's word that if miles can beat the captain at a duel, he'll let him off scot free. But obviously it can't be that easy, where else would 90% of the tension in the story come from then?

and that's pretty much part of the set up for the au hehe, i wrote a whole heck of a lot and i hope you enjoy reading it holy hell fnkskf

also thank you so much!!! I'm very glad you enjoy my crazed doodles of this au it means a lot to me :3 💖