At 20 years old, Miles Edgeworth’s only mentor tells him never to step foot into his opponent’s territory lest he fail to crush them in court. 4 years later, Edgeworth enters Defendant Lobby No. 1 to warn opposing counsel Phoenix Wright about Redd White’s decisive testimony.
Some post-AAI1 reflections + how Phoenix unravels Miles from the very moment they meet again.
After playing through the original trilogy, up to 4-2 on Apollo Justice, and all of Ace Attorney Investigations 1, I couldn’t help but jot down my (admittedly incomplete) thoughts about Phoenix and Edgeworth’s relationship, especially as it pertains to Miles’ “unraveling,” or his departure from von Karma’s teachings.
We already know von Karma had no love for Edgeworth. Crushing the late Gregory Edgeworth’s legacy under the guise of mentoring his son (and eventually ruining his career at its peak) was von Karma’s last act of hatred towards the departed.
From Miles’ perspective, however, von Karma was an accomplished teacher to whom he owed his gratitude and career’s success. This is important because Edgeworth’s actions are fundamentally motivated by his desire to express his “gratitude,” repay debts, and honor legacies.
His debt to von Karma compels him to strive for the perfection his mentor obsesses over. Achieving perfection takes the form of absorbing von Karma’s teachings, among them the AAI1 screenshot from earlier: only face your opponent in court, and make sure you crush them when you do it.
We know for a fact that the “demon prosecutor” internalizes von Karma’s teachings. He follows them to a T.
So, following 15 years of indoctrination, 4 years of putting the von Karma creed into practice, and an entire childhood AND early adulthood’s worth of gratitude, you’d THINK Edgeworth wouldn’t dare dishonor him…
Until he does, by coming to the defendant lobby to speak to his “enemy.”
Prior to playing AAI1, I thought the impetus for Edgeworth’s character development was 1-3, wherein he reevaluated the facts of the case and helped Phoenix get Dee Vasquez a guilty verdict. I still think 1-3 was the first time he consciously acknowledged the possibility (keyword: possibility) that his prosecutorial upbringing wasn’t..sound…(lmao!)
But with this AAI1 von Karma and Bratworth interaction, I now believe it was 1-2—with Edgeworth subconsciously disregarding his mentor’s teachings and Phoenix acting as the catalyst—that shows us when he first strayed from the path of a Von Karma.
An aside: Do I think AAI1 Bratworth was perfectly characterized? Not at all; he’s much too noble for that era of his life, though I don’t think it affects my case.
Edgeworth is a man full of contradictions. He comes to the defendant lobby to tell Phoenix his case is hopeless, though he has no obligation to disclose—nor has he ever set a precedent of disclosing—decisive witnesses’ information to his opponents.
He tells Phoenix he’ll do anything to get a guilty verdict, yet he warns the defense that his witness’s testimony will be considered infallible, prompting the player (Phoenix) to dissect the following testimonies with more care.
He tells Phoenix not to expect any special treatment from him, yet his very presence in the defendant’s lobby is in direct opposition to his respected mentor’s wishes.
It takes just one appearance from Phoenix for the filaments of von Karma’s indoctrination to unravel. 4 years into his career, Edgeworth has met many attorneys—most notably, Mia Fey—who embody Phoenix’s faith in his clients, yet none could shake his foundations like Phoenix Wright.
Edgeworth may have not been ready to turn a new leaf upon his first encounter with Phoenix, but the fact that a loose thread from his childhood (that’s emblematic of his innocence, his dreams, and dare I say his father’s drive) ultimately leads to his unraveling is poetry if I’ve ever seen it.
TL;DR Phoenix deconstructs Edgeworth like he was born to do so. The moment Phoenix decided to chase after him, Edgeworth had already lost.
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The heat was getting to be a problem.
The power had been out in National City for three days, and those three days were expected to be among the hottest of the year. Lena was, frankly, desperate.
You might think that she’d have it easy, but anyone who would think that a penthouse in a skyscraper would be easy to cool would quickly be disabused of that notion. The windows mostly didn’t open and having the balcony doors spread wide did next to nothing when the breeze felt like opening an oven, even up here.
It had been Alex’s suggestion, sent by text.
Why don’t you go to Kara’s? The loft is pretty breezy.
She was right, of course. When Lena arrived, Kara had every one of her huge loft windows open, allowing the breeze to flow freely through the open, airy space.
There was another problem, though.
When Kara opened the door, Lena nearly keeled over. Kara was wearing a sports bra and shorts so short they barely deserved the name, exposing a vast amount of golden, sun-kissed skin. Worse, her gloriously muscled stomach and shoulders glistened with sweat.
Lena was surprised to see that the heat bothered her, but it clearly did. Kara had forgone her glasses, too, and after she opened the door, she swept the back of her hand across her forehead and sighed.
“Hi,” Lena squeaked.
“Hi yourself. Hot out there?”
“It’s hot in here.”
“Come in, come in,” said Kara.
Lena stepped inside, forcing herself not to stare at Kara’s thick thighs and the swell of her chest under straining fabric. Was that zipper some advanced Kryptonian technology?
“Want something to drink?”
“Isn’t your fridge dead, too?”
“Yeah, but I cheat. Watch.”
Kara slipped a bottle of water out of a pack on her counter and breathed on it. Ice crystals formed on the surface and the water visibly chilled. It shocked Lena when she accepted it and the cold water on her lips was bliss. Lena let out a soft sigh and closed her eyes, savoring the feeling of cold spreading through her chest, cooling her body.
When she opened her eyes, Kara was the one staring. Lena had thrown on a short, a-frame sun dress that bared her back, for no other reason than making sure that her skin could have as much surface exposed to the air to evaporate and cool her down as possible.
“So what are you up to?” Lena asked.
Kara gestured to the notebook and stacks of papers on the table.
“Old-fashioned journalism, I guess. My laptop battery died yesterday.”
“I thought you’d be out there trying to fix the power.”
Kara shrugged. “With what, my super-electrician powers?”
Lena shot her a look, raising her brow.
Kara turned away, heading for the windows.
Oh, Jesus, Lena thought.
It wasn’t as if Lena hadn’t… noticed Kara’s physique. She wasn’t blind, after all. They’d taken spin class together, and Kara liked to wear leggings on the weekends.
But holy shit, those shorts made her ass look… Super.
Lena was still fumbling over a buns of steel pun in her head when Kara turned back.
“Hey, you okay? Your heart raced for a second there.”
“F-fine,” said Lena.
“Alex and the others are coming over tonight for an emergency game night,” said Kara. “I better get ready.”
For the next couple of hours, Lena helped Kara neaten up her apartment and prepare non-perishable snacks and a cooler full of beer and wine coolers, chilled care of Kara. Alex and Kelly were the first to show up, with Alex giving Lena a cheeky look as she walked into the apartment.
“Hey, you two,” she said. “Been having a hot time?”
There was something brittle in Kara’s laugh that set Lena a little on edge, and the Danvers sisters shared one of those looks they shared that made Lena wonder if they could communicate telepathically. Whatever the message was, it made Kara look away first, distracting with an offered beer that Alex gladly accepted.
Lena took a wine cooler, wishing it were wine.
Nia and Brainy showed up next, followed by J’onn, who was the only one fully dressed in a button-down shirt and khakis, while everyone else was dressed for the beach or a track meet.
Lena sat on the floor, because the hardwood was cool under her butt, and leaned back against Kara’s couch. Kara sat beside her and Lena’s heart definitely sped up.
Looking over, it was hard to tear her eyes away. Kara made a magnificent display- the blocky weight of her shoulders, full biceps and strong arms and bulky, sculpted forearms. Lena’s eyes followed the vein on the back of Kara’s arm down the back of her strong hand and the elegant lengths of her fingers.
Kara kept her nails neatly trimmed like that because of Supergirl duties, right?
Right?
“Hey Luthor? You having a heat stroke?” said Alex. “You look spaced out over there.”
Alex had a playful grin plastered on her face, though she too was sweating profusely. A cooler breeze rolled in through the big windows and everyone sighed in delight.
Except J’onn. “What shall we play first?” she said.
“Clue!” Nia chirped.
“Brainy always kicks our ass at Clue,” said Alex, “and I am not playing Monopoly with a literal billionaire again.”
“Perhaps we should play Risk,” said J’onn, rifling through the game shelf.
“We could try Twisted,” Kara suggested in a deadpan voice.
Lena swallowed hard, thinking of herself tangled up on the mat with Kara, clothes glued to their skin by sweat, salty skin sliding against salty skin, the scent of her…
“Earth to Lena,” said Alex. “Got any ideas?”
“Exploding Kittens,” said Lena. “We haven’t done that one in a while.”
“Kara, chill us some cold ones, will you?” said Nia.
Once everyone had a rapidly warming drink, Brainy dealt the cards and the game began. Alex called Kara out for peeking several times, with that loaded Danvers Sisters Look and an almost predatory smirk.
She wasn’t the only one peeking.
Lena participate in the game but her mind was elsewhere, specifically the valley of Kara’s broad back, where sweat gathered between her muscles and rain down in heavy beads, or the sweat gathering along her collarbone or sparking along the lush inner curves of her tightly contained breasts.
“Hey,” said Kara. “It’s your turn, Lena.”
Then she reached over and brushed damp lock of inky hair out of Lena’s eyes.
She could have melted. She swallowed hard, brushed the sweat from her brow, and made a hasty and wasteful play that would probably cost her any chance of winning, but she didn’t care. The game seemed at most a distant concern.
Kara’s tongue glazing along her soft pink lips was much more interesting. They’d pretty much all given up on makeup but Kara was still positively radiant, soft and inviting and homey in a way that made Lena ache in her chest.
And, uh, other places.
It was full dark now, so they finished the game and Kara and Alex got up to light a few candles.
“This is like camping,” said Nia.
“We should have thought to procure ‘marshmallows’, said Brainy. “Kara could toast them with her heat vision.”
“We hardly need more heat. I’m boiling,” said Lena.
J’onn let out a soft grunt. “It’s my turn to go on patrol. I think I’ll be the first to head out.
Everyone gave their goodbyes as he headed out the window. The others huddled closer around the table, lit by the candle sitting in the middle.
“We should tell scary stories,” said Alex. “Like around a campfire.”
“Since it was your idea, you go first,” said Kelly.
Alex leaned into it with abandon, leaning in over the table as she started spinning a campfire yarn that Lena quickly recognized as The Hook.
Kara edged closer, until her bare thigh pressed against Lena. She leaned in close, and it wouldn’t have taken much for Lena to… rest her head on Kara’s shoulder. It just kind of happened, Kara’s scent filling her nostrils as she turned into Kara.
Lena flinched as Kara shot her a concerned look.
She can hear my heartbeat.
Kara must have thought Lena was scared, because she casually slipped an arm around her.
Lena’s breath caught. Kara’s powerful arm rested lazily around her hip and her relaxed hand rested on Lena’s thigh, fingers placed lightly on bare skin.
It was a powerfully possessive gesture, not just protective but… more. Lena shifted a little and let herself completely fall against Kara.
Alex kept on telling the story, her gaze pausing heavily on the two of them as she scanned the room. Brainy looked bored but Nia looked genuinely petrified and Kelly was looking at her wife with the kind of adoring reference that was currently plastered on Lena’s face as she looked up at Kara.
Alex reached the crescendo of the story and Lena let out a little gasp, turning her face into Kara’s neck, more for the sake of it than out of fear. Kara’s hand stroked lazily up and down her back.
“Don’t worry, I won’t let anyone get you,” Kara whispered.
“You two okay over there?” said Alex.
“Fine,” said Kara.
“There are two actual couples here and you two are the ones doing the heavy petting.”
They weren’t heavy petting. Okay sure, Lena had her fingers curled around Kara’s hip and Kara’s hand was staring to pass the platonic zone when stroking her back but…
Oh.
“It’s getting late,” said Kelly. “Maybe we should head home.”
“Agreed,” said Nia. “Come on, Brainy.”
Lena and Kara didn’t get up.
The others did, piling out of the apartment. Alex went last, shooting Kara another of those damned looks, smiling like a self-satisfied cat after a big stretch.
The door closed and Kara yawned.
“Mind if I stay?” Lena said, quickly. “My place is just too hot to sleep.”
“Of course,” Kara said softly.
Lena didn’t move. They were alone now, the apartment dark except for candles that threw flickering shadows and made Kara even more ethereal. Lena could barely believe someone so gorgeous could be real.
“Lena,” Kara said quietly. “Have you ever thought about…” she trailed off.
“About what?”
“Us. What we are to each other.”
“Yes,” said Lena.
“Me too.”
“What are you thinking?” Lena asked.
“You’re my best friend. You mean more to me than basically anyone else, and the thought of you has kept me going through some really dark times.”
When Kara smiled for her, her eyes lit up, sparkling in the candlelight, like moonlight dancing on nighttime waves. She was entrancing.
“I…” Lena began. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you as just a friend. There’s more on the table if you want it.”
“More like… kissing?”
“Yes, exactly.”
This was actually happening. It was real, not a daydream or a fantasy. Kara moved with agonizing slowness, full of a gentle, kind intensity as she leaned down and lightly brushed her lips across Lena’s.
It was like being tossed in a tub of ice water… in a good way. Lena shivered as Kara cupped her jaw and went for another kiss, more forcefully this time, more insistent. The breathed as one.
“Kara,” Lena whispered.
She couldn’t help it. Lena dragged her tongue over Kara’s skin, tasting the sweat pooled at the base of her neck. Kara let out a low moan followed by a deep basso rumble in her chest, pulsating in time with her breathing.
“Did you just lick my sweat?”
“Are you purring?!”
Kara giggled. “I can do lots of things.”
Lena looked up at her with lidded eyes. “Oh yeah? Show me what you got.”
She squeaked as Kara picked her up in a single smooth motion, and with a self-satisfied smirk, carried her towards the bed.
Later, as they lay in a tangle of perspiring limbs atop sweat-soaked sheets, the power thumped back on and the air conditioning began to blow over them, chilling Lena’s skin.
She barely noticed.
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