#writing interactions with Apollo are fun in general tho haha

[snezfics-n-shit]

Sicktember Day 11: Beginner's Guide to Faking Sick

Fandom: Ace Attorney Characters: Larry Butz, Apollo Justice, Trucy Wright, Phoenix Wright, Miles Edgeworth Notes: Despite an ill-fitting reputation as a slacker, Larry has never faked being sick in his life. There are over a hundred good excuses out there, should he ever need one. Pretending to be sick was far too risky, anyway. However, as the time for his visit to his boyfriends grows shorter, and his boyfriends’ work days grow longer, Larry may just have to step out of his comfort zone with help from two unlikely sources. Post-SoJ, one mention of Apollo’s whereabouts following the game, but he’s in Japanifornia focusing on the here and now, so assess how risky you personally find it if you haven’t finished SoJ. You know the drill, married Wrightworth mutually dating Larry, and Trucy is in college (they grow up so fast!)

“Another one!?” 

Even if the phone couldn’t hear him, it felt good for Larry to shout his frustrations at his latest received texts. 

“What’s up?” A muffled form of Apollo’s voice came from inside one of Trucy’s magic boxes. “Is it a good enough excuse to get out of this box?” 

“No,” Larry groaned as he rested his cheek on Phoenix’s desk, “Edgey just had to call in another witness, so he and Nick are gonna be working all day again.”

“Damn, I guess you’re stuck here with us, then.” Apollo helped himself to opening the top of the box to climb out, provoking merely a look of disappointment from Trucy once she entered the office just in time to catch him in the act. “Funny how even after I’ve been gone for a while, the boss still hasn’t given Athena her fair share of cases.”

“That’s not true, Polly!” Trucy eagerly corrected him. “This was actually Athena’s case originally, but,” she couldn’t help but giggle, “she’s playing hooky to go on a date!” 

“What?” Apollo raised a brow. “I could’ve sworn I heard you tell everyone here that she had the flu, and in graphic detail at that.” 

“That’s what I told you, yes.” Trucy blew a quick, playful raspberry. “She needed a good excuse to take time off, so I came up with one.”

“Jeez, I wish an excuse like that could be enough to get someone else to stay home,” Larry lamented, “then the days leading up to my next book fair appearance wouldn’t be so lonely.” 

“Who said they couldn’t, Uncle Larry?” Even though Larry was now dating both of Trucy’s dads, the ‘Uncle’ part still stuck. “When I got my appendix out, Daddy and Papa dropped everything just to stay with me.” 

“Well, yeah, they’re your parents and you had a major surgery.” Larry countered. 

“Didn’t the boss and Mr. Edgeworth take a week off when you had the flu, Larry?” Apollo wondered aloud. 

“Yeah, but I was actually sick, and it was awful.” 

“Who said you have to be actually sick?” 

The cogs in Larry’s brain needed a moment to turn.

“Oh, no! No way!” Larry refused the potential suggestion adamantly. “I have never faked sick in my entire life. It would be too risky to start now.”

“But that would make you more believable!” Trucy insisted. “Didn’t you say Papa used to get away with faking sick all the time because he was so well behaved?” 

“Yeah, but I’m not.” 

“Sure you are! You have, um,” Trucy pressed a finger to her cheek, “a record of credibility! Yeah! Daddy and Papa would never suspect a thing!” 

“But I don’t know the first thing about faking sick!”

“Polly and I can show you the ropes!” Trucy giggled once she saw Apollo’s reaction to being volunteered. “Polly pretended to be sick so we wouldn’t find out he got backstage passes to–”

“Hey!” Apollo interrupted, even though it was obvious those backstage passes were a privilege earned by being the boyfriend of Klavier Gavin. It wasn’t even that big of a deal, since everyone and their mother already knew that, but Apollo liked pretending his relationship was still a well-hidden secret. “I’ll help, just… Just be quiet in exchange!”

“Alright, alright.” Trucy needed a moment to settle down. “First thing’s first: looking the part!” 

. . .

The makeup was so itchy. 

Sure, it helped Larry look like he was at death’s door, but why did it have to be so uncomfortable? This was the stuff Trucy wore for every magic show? This was the stuff Nick wore for Ivy University’s theatre productions? Larry was so thankful that despite his very long résumé, such heavy makeup was never required; even the Steel Samurai live shows just needed the costumes and that was it. 

“He looks like a zombie…” Apollo muttered. “I thought we were going for a few days of bedrest, not the walking dead.” 

“That’s because I haven’t applied the blush yet, Polly!” 

Oh god, there was more. 

“How much longer is this gonna take?” Larry didn’t mean to sound like he was complaining, but it did feel like forever. 

“Just a few finishing touches, aaaaand… We’re done!” Trucy presented a hand mirror for Larry to assess the results. 

“Wow, I look like shit.” If it had been any other situation, that wouldn’t even be close to the compliment it was right now. 

“Perfect!” Trucy bounced on the balls of her feet. “That means Polly can help you with the next part!”

“What?” Why me?” Apollo pointed to himself, almost hoping there was somehow another ‘Polly’ in the room. 

“You lose your voice all the time from yelling stuff like,” Trucy took a deep breath, “‘I’M FINE!!’” She cleared her throat. “You know, like that.”

“I don’t do it on purpose.” Apollo retorted. 

“Well, how else is he going to sound sick?” 

“Um,” Larry chimed in, “I could just take a nap with Pess and get congested that way; that’d make me sound pretty sick.”

“Nope! Not allowed!” Trucy was quick to dismiss the decision. “You’ll ruin all my hard work on your makeup if you do that!” 

“Alright,” Apollo conceded with a sigh, “let’s get shouting.” 

. . . 

It took until dusk for the excess yelling to do a number on Larry’s vocal chords, but what mattered was that it worked. Even when Apollo suggested he just give up, Larry kept going. 

Now he looked, sounded, and honestly kind of even felt sick enough for even the most perceptive of lawyers to fall for his performance. 

Trucy and Apollo had opted to leave the office and grab something to eat, mostly because Trucy couldn’t stop giggling and Apollo feared she would give everything away. For a girl who took the art of the poker face so seriously, Trucy sure had a difficult time maintaining one whenever her dads were involved. 

All Larry needed to do was just wait for just the right moment to pull the thermometer from the mug of hot water that Trucy had prepared, and all would be right. His boyfriends would immediately take pity on him, call in some substitutes, and spend all their newly gained freetime pampering him. 

Life would be so good. 

As soon as the door creaked open, it was showtime. Larry quickly plucked the heated thermometer to slide under his tongue, wincing as it slightly burned the inside of his mouth. 

“Sorry we’re late.” Phoenix spoke mid-yawn as he and Miles hung their coats on the office coat rack; surely this meant yet another late night of going over case notes… that is, if it weren’t for Larry’s brilliant ruse. “Good news, though: the trial wrapped up today.” 

What!? 

“It actually wrapped up earlier today, but we needed to run some more errands.” Miles explained.

“Miles and I were actually–” Phoenix’s attention was soon grabbed by the sound of the beeping thermometer. “Larry?” He gently pulled the device from his boyfriend’s mouth and sighed at the numbers it displayed. “A hundred, on the dot.” He kissed Larry’s forehead. “Pretty low, so that’s probably why you don’t feel very warm…” 

“If you’re feeling unwell enough to need to check your temperature, I’d say that alone calls for getting some rest.” Miles propped Larry up on his shoulder. “Let’s get you home. We can postpone tomorrow’s plans for a later date.”

“Wha–” Larry tried to ask what plans Miles was referring to, but his voice was just completely gone. 

“Oh, geez.” Phoenix made a noise in sympathy. “Yeah, it wouldn’t be much fun riding a rollercoaster with that nasty case of…” He started to snicker. 

“Darling, don’t.” Miles advised.

“Larry-ngitis.” 

Larry instinctively glowered. He forgot how much Phoenix loved that pun whenever he lost his voice. First missing out on a roller coaster, and now this. Good grief!

“Of course, it could be something that will pass fairly quickly, like a 24-hour bug.” Miles speculated, much to Larry’s relief. “We’ll just have to see how you’re faring tomorrow.”

“Yeah, now that I think of it, it did come on fairly quickly.” If Phoenix was saying that out of suspicion, given the new circumstances, Larry would not have minded at all. “Maybe what you need is a nice hot cup of tea with lots of honey.”

That sounded so nice, to be allowed a night of pampering and an amusement park date with his boyfriends. It would be like that one saying, having a cake and eating it too, even though Larry didn’t quite understand what the point would be to have a cake and not eat it. 

All he had to do now was hope his voice would be back in shape in the morning, and all would be well. 

. . .

Alas, Larry’s voice was, in fact, not back in shape in the morning. 

Well, at least he’ll have his day of pampering, which, he would have to sullenly admit, was not nearly as fun as a date at the amusement park.

[girls-are-weird]

tagged by the awesomesauce @fatechica , whom i bow to because i'm not worthy

What is your total posted word count on AO3? (Go to your Works, then click Statistics)

466,156 -- which just goes to show i could've written six or seven novels in the time i waste writing fanfic lol, worth it tho! (fun fact: total goes up to 1,079,563 over at FFN-- i have more of my old stories over there. and BOY they're old, haha!)

How often do you write?

when the muse strikes me. which these days is about every other day, but in other periods has been like... one paragraph every few months. idk, i'm weird. writing discipline is not my thing.

Do you have a routine for writing?

not really. generally speaking i'll be reading something else (a book, or fanfiction) or watching tv/movies when i'm hit with an idea that i subsequently write down on a text file because if i don't, i'll forget about it. then i keep reading/watching whatever i was reading/watching and go on with my life until one day i look back on the text file, tell myself "oh that's right, i wanted to write that" and boom, inspiration hits. then i generally write whatever it is over the course of a few days, muse allowing. i do have some stories that i was really excited about that fizzled out halfway through writing. it happens from time to time. it's why i prefer writing one-shots-- less of a chance that inspiration will fizzle out that way.

What are your favorite tropes/pairings?

tropes: i read romance almost exclusively, so anything you might find in a romcom, i love. medium burns, because i'm impatient (but i'll sit through slow-burn fics if they're really good). episode-tag/missing-scene fics. canon divergence. and since most of my fandoms deal with groups of young-adult characters, future fics and post-ending fics are kind of a big thing for me. college and high school AUs because it's like watching TV but with words, lol. not terribly into AUs unless they're very well written, though.

pairings: since i've been mostly into stranger things for the last year or so, the biggest would be mike/eleven, but i also ship jonathan/nancy and hopper/joyce (and dustin/max, but there's so little of it out there...). in recent years i've also dabbled in the percy jackson/heroes of olympus/trials of apollo fandom (where my biggest ship is arguably will/nico but also percy/annabeth, jason/piper and other minor pairings), the how to train your dragon fandom (hiccup/astrid all the way and don't really care about any of the others tbh), and the hunger games fandom (peeta/katniss and gale/madge mainly, but other minor ships, too). this past week i've gotten back into naruto for some reason though, and over there i ship naruto/hinata mainly, but also sasuke/sakura and shikamaru/ino.

Do you have a favorite fic of yours?

the one i enjoyed writing the most was probably i think they'll be thrilled, because it has karen in it and i luff karen. the one i find myself rereading the most often is four in the morning, probably because i'm a sucker for post-gate fics. i also have a soft spot for anything featuring dustin (dustin henderson saves the day, especially), nancy [love (and other weird things) for one], and hopper (growing pains and private time also get reread a lot). also shoutout to we are not alone, because the party are my precious children and i need to write more fics where all six of them interact with each other. (and speaking of that... *hint hint*)

Your fic with the most kudos?

i think they'll be thrilled has 583 kudos, which never fails to blow my mind. i figure it was the timing of when i posted it, lol, because that's a ridiculous number of kudos for a one-shot, haha.

Anything you don’t like about your writing?

when i say i only write when inspiration strikes, i mean that 100%. if i force myself to write, i end up hating everything i write. it irks me to no end that this happens. also, i have certain repetitive sort-of turns of phrases that i keep using without noticing, and it's only when i'm rereading my stuff after some time that i realize "oh, i used that again" and i can only roll my eyes.

Now something you do like?

i've always been really proud of how true-to-canon i manage to keep the characters, even in AU settings. that's always my main goal when writing any fanfic, because if i'm changing the essence of the characters from canon, then i'm not REALLY writing fanfic, am i? OOC bugs the heck out of me. so i always strive to keep them recognizable to the original audience, and it always makes my day when someone comments on one of my stories telling me they like my characterization, it's the greatest compliment they could ever give me.

not tagging anyone bc i can't look up my list of followed blogs rn, but if you decide to do this off my post, make sure to tag me because i'd love to read your answers! <3