#and narumitsu does it perfectly | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

box-dwelling · 7 months

Text

So I've had this idea swimming in my head for a bit and I considered doing a fic about it but honestly I just want to do a headcanon write up for now at least. So narumitsu Franmaya post SOJ kids!

So I think after SOJ the elders in Kurain are going to start really getting on Maya's ass about having a baby. And it's getting really annoying. She been dating/married to Franziska for years at this point but I think they're solidly convinced she's having her "lesbian phase" and that once Pearl is of age and doesn't need looking after anymore and she's officially the Master of Kurain she's going to find herself a husband and settle down.

Maya fucking hates this. She wants them to properly recognise her relationship and while her relationship with the entire concept of having kids is very complicated, she doesn't want Channeling to die out so she condededs that fine, she'll have the damn kids but Franziska is being their mom.

Franziska has her own complicated ideas around legacy but is equally getting annoyed but she recognises this is important for Maya's culture and she doesn't dislike kids in general, she's been a good Tante to Trucy and while her relationship with Pearl is rocky she's thinks she's done a perfect job being her quasi step mother.

So they concoct a plan.

One day they sit Miles, Phoenix and Trucy down and say they're going to try IVF and they ask Miles to be the donor because in the absence of true male Von Karma DNA, honourary Von Karma DNA will do the job. Phoenix is completely on board because hes been listening to Maya complain about this for literal years and wants it to be over and done with for her. Trucy finds the idea hilarious because it promises to make their already insane family tree even more convoluted and she thrives in that chaos. She's also very aware that's she's presently the baby of the family and is a bit worried about her dad's empty nesting. Miles is honoured to be asked.

They do the thing. Then a few months later the Wright-Edgeworth's get a panicked phone call. Maya has just had a check up and has found out that she is pregnant with triplets. But one of them is male. 3 kids was going to be a lot anyway but there's enough people in Kurain that they can make it work. But Maya is very very aware of how weird the village is around men and really doesn't want her kid raised in that environment. And Phoenix and Miles, bleeding heart chronic adopters that they are agree that they'll raise the boy and Maya and Franziska can raise the girls in Kurain. So begins the chaos.

Miles does an insane amount of prep for the baby. He reads literally every parenting book he can get his hands on. He might as well have an honourary degree in child development after the amount of research he does. He calls up old contacts from universities he's taught at to get access to papers, he complies reading lists, he makes binders full of note, he goes completely overboard because he's going to raise this kid right. (I honestly think he did this when he first became involved in Trucy's life too but those stages of development are vastly different to that of a baby)

Franziska, does not. She is convinced she knows everything she could possibly need to in order to do this perfectly. Pearl turned out fine. These kids will too. Miles keeps sending her papers he's read and she will skim them, states that she already knew all of that and tell him he's over reacting. However she does do a good number of therapy sessions in preparation to get her head straight about what stuff Manfred did that was good and what stuff he did that was bad.

Phoenix is panicking and being way way too attentive of Maya. He's calling every few hours to make sure she's ok. Not because he's worried about the babies, though he is, but because his best friend/kid sister is carrying 3 human beings and he's terrified she's going to get hurt. He will cross the bridge of raising them when he gets there, he did fine with Trucy and he's kind of a dad by nature at this point.

Maya Hates being pregnant. She despises it. She can't do all the cool active stuff she's used to, Nick is being overbearing as well as all the other general stuff that sucks with being pregnant. She is not enjoying this and is actually kinda glad it's triplets because that means she has 2 female heirs an she never has to do this ever again. She is however also not stressing about raising them. She has some basics covered like making damn sure no one pits them against eachother and that they can chose among the pair of them who's going to inherit her title when they're good and ready. They'll need a certain level of spiritual training obviously but she's determined to give them as normal a life as possible and hopefully when they're old enough have them travel a lot with her and Franziska while Franziska is working.

This is a more complicated other headcanon but I think this is around the time Trucy starts properly coming to terms with the fact that the Gramaryes suck ass and she doesn't actually want anything to do with them. So she's kind of doing some soul searching and decides to take a gap year after school to figure out if she wants to be a magician or not by trying to define herself by something else. This gap year ends up manifesting by being an investigative assistant full time at the WAA while also trying out literally everything else she's ever had a passing interest in. She's figuring herself out during this time basically.

The babies come. Nick is incredibly overbearing during the labor. Franziska is just focusing on helping Maya through it and Miles is stressed the fuck out that this is happening and real.

And so Richard (after gumshoe), Sakura (named after the Pink Princess), and Brunhilde (named by Franziska because it means Armoured for battle which Maya thought sounded cool as hell) are born. The elders are very upset about how the names don't follow traditional fey naming convention but Maya doesn't care. She wants these kids to grow up knowing the exist outside of the village and giving Brunhilde a German name makes is even clearer that Franziska is her mother and nothing is changing that fact.

Maya and Franziska have a basically uneventful time raising the girls. The elders have been prepared for this for years. Maya goes by Mom/Mommy, Fran goes by Mama. As they planned they take them all over the globe with Frans work with Interpol. Maya gets to call it a holiday regularly and fobs off the elders by saying that they'll be better trained by being more worldly. She'll look after the kids as Fran works and when they go back to Kurain they switch and Fran will take cases in the japanifonia prosecutors office when the elders want to train them. They're a well oiled machine. Brunhilde ends up taking more after Fran and Sakura takes more after Miles. Brunhilde is actually really good at channeling but decides to let Sakura take the title because she enjoys it more. The elders are actually pretty glad about this because Brunhilde is absolutely terrifying. She got the Edgeworth glare which combined with supernatural powers makes her seem like something out of the Omen. Franziska and Maya couldn't be more proud. Sakura is a little more mild mannered but given her parents it's not by much. She's still a forceful presence but she's just typically a lot more easy going. She is genuinely passionate as hell about Channeling, she got Maya and Miles' autism and it's becomes her special interest. She's studious and devoted and really cares about what she does. She ends up doing a ton to revolutionise channeling when she becomes master and basically brings it into a new golden age. The two of them are close and their parents make certain to makes sure there's absolutely no bad blood there.

Miles and Phoenix have a slightly more chaotic time raising Richard. They're both workaholics and also running major legal bodies so figuring out how to make time to raise a baby amongst that is difficult.

They start with Phoenix taking paternity leave and calling in to talk with Athena. Trucy at this point is still in her final year so the office is quiet as hell and Athena HATES it. She needs a busy environment and being alone in the office is driving her mad.

So that last like a month before they just decide to baby proof the WAA and have Phoenix look after Richard while he's there. Athena likes babies (like come on, she does) but the crying is difficult on her ears so Phoenix gets her some very strong noise cancelling headphones and the pair of them come up with an insane series of methods of non verbally communicating. Phoenix and Athena barely have a braincell of common sense between them so they end up with various whiteboards all over the office to write stuff on and a nerf gun each to get each others attention.

One Apollo's first return visit from Kura'in with this as the new status quo Richard nearly chokes on a dart and he asks why they didn't just both learn ASL to which Athena and Phoenix both look at each other because the sensible solutions never even occurred to them. They learn ASL after that.

The first time they have to investigate a case Phoenix just straps up with a dad harness and takes the baby to the crime scene. This goes predictably poorly. Richard won't stop crying while they're talking to witnesses and Athena has to put on her head phones which means Phoenix has to write down everything the witness says to show her but his handwriting is terrible and he can't spell when writing so quickly so Athena keeps misunderstanding what's been said. Richard throws up on some evidence. They then get threatened by some goons which when Phoenix reports back to Miles about his day nearly gives him a heart attack.

After that one of 3 things happens. If Trucy is free, she'll either babysit her kid brother or investigate with Athena, if she isn't and Miles is free/just doing work in his office, they'll drop Richard off with him for the day where Miles has baby supplies ready. If neither of them are free, Phoenix will stay in the office and look after Richard while Athena has him on face time. That being said I'd give it 3 years before that kid's back to being dragged along to crime scenes. It's the Wright kid way.

I feel like the courthouse probably has a day care so they drop him off there during trials

When Richard is in Miles office is comparatively calm compared with the WAA. Klavier comes in to coo and sing him lullabies. Taka will sometimes take vigilant watch when he's sleeping. Simon will on occasion ask about his psychological development. But it's a lot more sane. When he's a bit older I'm reasonably certain that Simon will let him play with his katana at least once but other than that its fine.

Despite this Richard grows up to be basically fine. Weird girl energy as comes with the territory but they try to make sure he's has as normal a childhood as possible. He takes after Maya a lot which is either a biological thing or just kind of what happens when a considerable chunk of your devolpment is done in a WAA that is lacking Apollo. Miles is keeping a detailed track on all his development milestones and he's pretty far ahead but reasonably so. He's smart but he's not a Prodigy which they take to mean basically healthy. If and when he ever does struggle with something they're very good about telling him that's ok and that helping him improve while also making sure he knows it's not a moral failing to struggle. He's aware that Brunhilde and Sakura are his siblings but it's explained more as 3 kids being a lot to handle rather than the stuff about Kurain being weird. He sees them both regularly and all 4 of them love all 3 kids to pieces.

In terms of appearance as they get older, I think Richard has Maya's round soft features but Miles' grey hair and eye colour. Brunhilde is kind of the opposite, she's got the dark hair and piercing blue eyes but the sharp Edgeworth features. She also got his shitty eye sight and has glasses from a very young age. Sakura has grey narrowed eyes but round cheeks and dark hair.

#this is semi Inspired by nutmeg mayonnaise's au which is great but it mostly not #franmaya #narumitsu #Wrightworth #ace attorney headcanon #Phoenix wright #miles edgeworth #franziska von karma #maya fey #trucy wright #athena Cykes #my aa kids au #waa shenanigans #klavier gavin #Apollo justice #simon blackquill

108 notes · View notes

selfdestructivecat · 2 years

Note

Franziska and Phoenix headcanons please?

Oh I absolutely LOVE these two! Very underrated dynamic!

(These headcanons include Narumitsu, and the last one heavily involves Franmaya, so if that’s not your cup of tea then no worries!)

Realistic Headcanon:

They can get very competitive if the opportunity presents itself.

At first, Phoenix is terrified of Franziska (and for good reason). He wants nothing to do with her and her obsession with perfection. But as time goes by, and circumstances toughen up Phoenix and soften Franziska, the two find themselves on a more equal wavelength. Sure, Phoenix is still more likely to let things go before they go too far, but otherwise? You had better not be in the same room as the two of them when a bet is on the line.

(More Headcanons Below!)

Unrealistic (but Hilarious) Headcanon):

Franziska’s whip is practically a part of her body at this point. Get on her bad side? The whip is out faster than you can blink.

And slightly unrelated, but I do headcanon that Franziska is so skilled with using her whip that she is able to hold back enough to prevent devastating harm. For example, while she does use her whip on literally anyone who crosses or annoys her (including Phoenix, of course), she doesn’t lash them so hard that they bleed, or are in excruciating pain. She’s able to hold back enough that it feels like a particularly painful slap, or even a punch when aimed a certain way, and the only markings left by the whip would be a bruise or a thin, red mark reminiscent of a sunburn that would fade away after a day or two.

Nevertheless, that whip still hurts like a bitch, and Phoenix has been a reoccurring victim of its wrath. In the years following the Engarde case, Phoenix’s mere presence infuriates Franziska, serving as a reminder of her first failure. Franziska does eventually warm up to Phoenix, but it takes a long time, and in the meantime Phoenix knows to expect a crack and a sting of pain whenever he sees the blue-haired prosecutor. And maybe Franziska does derive some satisfaction whenever he sees Phoenix flinch at her presence (who are we kidding, she totally does).

But then, something unexpected happens.

It’s many years after the two first met. Perhaps Phoenix even has Trucy now, who Franziska absolutely adores. But fools will be fools, and even after developing a begrudging fondness for this man her brother is so besotted for, Phoenix will undoubtedly spout some nonsense that has Franzisia gnashing her teeth and reaching for her whip.

Except when the whip descends and Phoenix instinctively recoils, his eyes widen. Not in pain, but in surprise.

Because the whip didn’t hurt him.

Phoenix had been whipped so much that he developed some kind of tolerance against the pain. Perhaps the constant lashes (as well as the other physical abuse he endured throughout his years as a defense attorney) helped him literally develop a thicker skin. Or maybe he’s so used to the pain that his brain just doesn’t register it as pain anymore.

He turns to Franziska, who looks just as shocked as he is. He realizes his mistake and tries to fake the pain, but it’s too late. Franziska sees right through him.

Her whip no longer works on Phoenix. He has secured another complete victory over her.

Because Franziska can’t whip him harder. Any harder, and she might actually cut him. She tries to whip him several times in a row, but it doesn’t change anything, and she’s quick to realize that continuing to whip him would only make it hurt less in the long run.

So to this day, Phoenix remains the only person that Franziska never whips. At first, Franziska’s subordinates believe that it’s because Franziska is afraid of him. That’s disproven soon enough, because Franziska has discovered other methods of intimidation that work perfectly fine on the thick-skinned attorney, much to Phoenix’s chagrin.

Maybe it would have been better if the whip still hurt…

Heart-Crushing and Awful Headcanon:

So… Phoenix and Franziska during the seven year gap.

In my headcanon, Miles was there. There is absolutely no question about that. Miles just about dropped everything to catch the first flight back to Japanifornia as soon as he heard the news, and even took some time off (which was absolutely unheard of for the prosecutor) to help Phoenix and his new daughter get to a place where they were stable. And even after this, when Miles returned to his job and occasionally needed to work abroad, he still regularly checked in with Phoenix and offered both emotional and financial support whenever it was needed.

Now, Franziska is a bit of a different story.

When she first heard the news, she was furious. How could that foolish defense attorney do something so unbelievably foolish!? Sure, Phoenix had done his fair share of stupid things, and his courtroom tactics are chaotic enough to belong in a circus, but to forge evidence? And against a rookie!? What was he thinking!?

Phoenix received many calls within the week of his disbarment, well-wishes and reassurances from friends (and even a few former clients) that helped ground the former lawyer and gave him the strength to keep going. Franziska wasn’t among those who called.

Eventually, Franziska received a call of her own from Miles. Of course, it’s about Phoenix. As soon as the man’s name left Mile’s lips, Franziska was off. She was absolutely fuming, ranting with a biting tone about a lack of brains and an even bigger lack of honor, about how foolish Phoenix was to even attempt something so stupid, and how she is an even bigger fool to have ever been bested by such a shameful excuse for a defense attorney.

And then Miles told her the truth, and her blood ran cold.

…The call Phoenix received a few weeks after his disbarment was a surprise, the caller even more so. Franziska’s words were as sharp as ever, and if Phoenix wasn’t already feeling so numb from the aftershock of everything that happened, he may have even flinched. But years of friendship with Miles had taught Phoenix how to see the care and concern behind the scolding, and he found himself smiling despite himself (and feeling glad that Franziska wasn’t there in person to see it, since he would no doubt receive a whipping).

Whenever Franziska overhears a subordinate or colleague badmouthing the disgraced attorney, they are quick to face the wrath of her whip. She was foolish enough to believe the same farce that lost Phoenix his badge, but she will not make the same mistake again.

Unrealistic Headcanon That Will Probably Never Happen:

Psst. Hey. Can I interest you in some… Franmaya?

So here Franziska is, lamenting over her foolish crush on that foolish (but admittedly beautiful) spirit medium. And that spirit medium happens to be best friends with a certain foolish defense attorney. The two are so close that they are practically siblings.

Which is obviously a huge problem for Franziska, who has historically not gotten along with Phoenix. But if she wants to have even a chance with Maya, she needs to develop an amicable relationship with the people she cares about.

She probably starts with Pearl, who takes… a while to warm up to her (I have some headcanons about the two of them that you can read here if you’d like!) She may even visit Khurain village and spend some time with the nuns and mediums, learning all she can about the history and culture Maya grew up with. The spirit mediums warm up to Franziska quickly, admiring her spirit and her dedication to learning, which is another victory for the prosecutor.

But she’s stalling, and she knows it. So she grits her teeth, takes a deep breath, and gives Phoenix a call.

Now, Franziska still scares Phoenix, there’s no doubt about that. But she scares him the same way Miles occasionally scares him, where Phoenix knows that he’s in deep trouble if he ever gets on Miles’ bad side, but also knows Miles enough to where he can see the cracks behind his mean, hardened persona.

And Phoenix isn’t stupid. He sees the way that Franziska looks at Maya, as much as she thinks she’s getting away with it, and he’s heard enough of Maya’s gushing to know that Franziska’s feelings are requited. But that doesn’t mean he can’t have a little fun. I mean, come on, when else would he get another opportunity like this, when Franziska is bending over backwards to get on his good side, despite how much she hates every moment? He’s spent enough time with Miles to know when to stop and when to keep prodding.

But he’s not heartless. He eventually gives Franziska his blessing (not that she needs it, he’s quick to clarify) and encourages her in her romantic pursuits. And it all works out, because whenever Maya is also in the same room as the two of them, Franziska seems to soften up ever so slightly, which means less ire directed Phoenix’s way. Really, it’s a win for everyone involved.

Thanks so much for the ask! Hope I did these two justice (pun intended!)

Send Me a Character or Relationship (Platonic or Romantic) and I’ll Give You Some Headcanons!

#myasks #anon asks #my headcanons #ask game #headcanon ask game #ace attorney headcanon #ace attorney #phoenix wright #ace attorney phoenix #franziska von karma #ace attorney franziska #franmaya #narumitsu

95 notes · View notes

hychlorions · 2 years

Note

Ik your biggest pet peeve is people getting the bracelet wrong, but what is a Popular Apollo and or Klavier HC that you look at and just think 'no. Wrong.' (alternatively just.. bad takes on the characters, any of the AA cast really)

actually yeah let's get into this before i overthink it. this got really long so i'll put it under a read more

personally i get that it's funny that pre-relationship apollo would turn klavier away and be annoyed of his. klavierness. and it makes SENSE because like. it's how we see them act in the games. i especially love their banter when they're in a relationship, even if this "ew klavier" facade is put on from time to time as a clear joke between them. sometimes, though, the way people portray how apollo reacts to and treats klavier in the context of a developing/established romantic relationship reminds me of a certain ship from another fandom i will rather not mention… particularly the fact that a lot of the comments made towards the content for it was like "you do know people in relationships are supposed to LIKE each other… right?" so yeah. you don't HAVE to portray apollo as 100% lovey dovey and mushy brained (though it's funny and kind of sweet. my guilty pleasure 🥴) but at a certain point, him being constantly annoyed makes me feel like. why is he even dating klavier yk?

as for klavier… we all love a man that dresses provocatively. but ig sometimes it goes too far, to the point where it's kind of ridiculous? i understand he's a rockstar AND a prosecutor, but i feel like he does in fact keep those two professions separate. we all agree he looks good in fishnets and platform stilettos and whatever, but for crime scenes and at the office, i feel like he'd stick to clothes that are more fit for court (albeit with the cleavage still lol). aside from professional settings even, i just think he KNOWS how to dress for the situation! no one in their right mind would wear heels to the gym or when they go hiking. you can look slutty AND be comfortable at the same time! anyone who knows how to dress up knows how to show skin (or not 🥴 black turtlenecks anyone?) in other ways. same as how no one would wear their court suit to headline a concert (ik we can attribute it to sprite limit but it's ok capcom. i know you just don't like klavier)

then there's trucy my love who is always the wingwoman. don't get me wrong i like the idea. but sometimes the content of her acting as a wingman makes her kind of disrespectful of apollo's boundaries. i mean she tends to push him outside of his comfort zone in the games, some of the things i've seen her do in fan content is just. holy fuck! you would never do that to a friend! let alone a sibling! though at this point that's just one of those fandom tropes already—going behind someone's back, setting them up to get into situations they've already stated they don't wanna be in, because it's definitely perfectly fine if it's all for love 🙄 you can argue she does the same when she makes them assistants for her magic show, but at least apollo somewhat knew what kind of stuff he's getting into beforehand. whatever wingman thing trucy does is always just thrown at him with no warning at all. but again, this is also just a trope common in a lot of fandoms when it comes to women who are in any sort of close proximity to mlm ships. i just wanna see more of apollo and trucy's relationship as siblings/friends beyond the context of her helping him get together with klavier, too! she's got a life outside of being a support character! it wouldn't hurt to have a conversation or two that isn't about the love interest or a murder, you know

this got long i'm sorry i just have so many Feelings and i've gone through so many fics and comics and ourgh. i’m a natural hater. speedrun of some other things:

narumitsu (whether one or both of them) having bitter feelings toward klavier post-7yg when other kids' parents manipulating said kid in ways that hurt either of nrmt have been shown in aa and they're on very much good terms with those kids too.

apollo personally being the head of rebuilding the justice system in khura'in. he'd help nahyuta yes, he stayed to be a defense attorney there bc there were no defense attorneys and it helps to have at least one, but being in charge of the entire thing? no. just no. soj itself has too many colonialist themes already

follow up to that last one: klavier moving to khura'in to help apollo??? and be his co-counsel? sorry but there are many lines from him that established he loves being a prosecutor too much to give that up just for a man

apollo or athena calling phoenix dad (in a canon setting). no. just no. esp if he adopts them???? gorl i love found family too but damn this is a workplace, not an orphanage...

to end with something silly: anyone being an aquarius/scorpio (sorry lmao this one is definitely personal. other people will hate these signs for general reasons but mine can very much be narrowed down to four people. i'm a special little boy)

#ask #anonymous #re: that last one though. i made kristoph a scorpio. bc he reminds me of one of those four people lol

53 notes · View notes

pikmininaplane · 1 year

Text

@massivefanmilkshake your wish is my command~

(Ignore the fact that it took me almost a week to do this, I,,, got busy)

((Also I'm not quite sure what 'they make me unwell' means in this context ?? So I didn't cross it, just to be sure))

Lorenzine :

The gals !! Not quite my RPZ OTP but it's definitely in my top 10 <3 Such a wholesome ship, Joséphine really deserves someone to cheer her up and help her enjoy life and Lorenza's perfect for that. I haven't made much content of these two, but I'm always happy to see some :3c

Vanekim :

Oh my god,,, women,,,,, 🤲 Love them SO much, god <3 Tbh I'm not quite sure when or why I started shipping those two but their energy is just great – two strong, mature women, I need to watch their POVs (or at least Vanessa's) to see their interactions but I have to finish Bernard's first 😔 I do wish other people made content of these two though, but oh well, wouldn't be my first time dying on my own little hill :')

Narumitsu/Wrightworth :

The beloveds !! God, how does one even play the AA games and not ship those two ? Yeah, it was all over the moment Edgeworth mentioned his unnecessary feelings 😭 Used to be my AA OTP, and though it's been outclassed by a couple of ships since then (*cough* Laywright *cough*) I definitely still enjoy the content of them I come across every so often :) And they may not be my favourite anymore but by god do they deserve to be canon. Please. Capcom the fanbase is begging you.

Patrochilles :

Ok, to be perfectly honest, I'm assuming you're referring to Patrochilles as they are presented in The Song of Achilles, but the thing is,,, I haven't actually read it 😭 I do appreciate both the mythological and the Hades game versions of these two, but yeah, I don't have any strong feelings about them X')

#ship bingo #rpz #lorenzine #vanekim #aa #wrightworth #tsoa #patrochilles #lb originals

6 notes · View notes

jawsofbalmung · 2 years

Note

For the ship ask meme; NaruMitsu and RyuuSusa? :D

NaruMitsu: Ship It!

What made you ship it?

Of course I ship it, it just comes part and parcel with being an ace attorney fan! I'm pretty sure I started shipping it even before I played the ot, when all I knew was tgaa tbh.

What are your favorite things about the ship?

They're literally perfect? They're soulmates? They're so different yet so similar and they care about each other on purpose and help each other with their traumas and issues and fill a void in each other's lives that they wouldn't be complete without. Look, I may be aromantic, but I do believe in true love. They're the cornerstone couple of the whole series, they're dads, they're longterm monogamous husbands, they're kinky, etc.

Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?

Aside from them being kinky? Lmao. So many. For one I fully believe Miles is a stone/exclusive dom top, and Phoenix is a preferred (but not stone) sub bottom. I also think Miles is arospec if not fully aromantic, as it's very suggested in canon, but this does not mean he can't be/isn't in love!! Romance-favorable and romance-neutral aros exist, and aros regardless of how they feel on romance can be in relationships too. Anyway I also think they are both trans.

RyuuSusa: Don't Ship

Why don't you ship it?

I'm gonna be honest, getting me to ship a m/f ship is a near-impossible task. I mean, there are definitely ones I like, but they are few and far between and have to have very specific qualities. Just being close and friendly usually defaults to a familiar dynamic to me, which is good and special, but just not something I see romantically!

What would have made you like it?

If Susato was a man Tbh they have a kind of bond that I think is perfectly fine as just friends, and I feel like even if it was an mlm ship, I might ship them a little (cause I'm multishipper trash) but it doesn't have the depth or intrigue that I usually like in my ships, so it wouldn't really be my favorite. ESPECIALLY not compared to the likes of baroryu *fans self*

Despite not shipping it, do you have anything positive to say about it?

Yes! I think their dynamic, whether platonic, familiar, or romantic, is very sweet :) I love Susato very much, and I do think the ryuususa art I see is cute despite not shipping it.

#wrightworth #ryususa

9 notes · View notes

sophistopheles · 3 years

Text

Here’s Why Franmaya Works

As one of my favourite ships, I have to admit that Franziska and Maya as a pairing is a little bit obscure. It has plenty of shippers, but taking the games at face value, nothing jumps out at you to make you think “oh, they might be a potential couple”.

But upon closer examination, there really is some potential there! Here’s why.

1. Maya’s Canonical Admiration for Franziska

In 2-2, Maya is amazed at how Fran’s done so much while being the same age as her; this ties more into her own feelings of uselessness, but sets up a scenario where she genuinely admires Franziska.

This comes out in the anime too, where she expresses sympathy for Franziska “fighting all alone in America”.

Although Franziska does everything she can to look “perfect”, deep down she’s quite insecure about her role as von Karma’s heir. Someone who supports and cheers for her unconditionally would be really good for her!

Additionally, if you present Fran’s profile to Maya in Big Top, she says that if Franziska wasn’t so mean, she thinks they would get along quite well- and given that Fran’s been quietly undergoing that development since JfA, she and Maya could probably grow close given the opportunity.

(More under the cut!)

2. Franziska’s Canonical Soft Spot for Maya

The most obvious example of this is in 3-5, where she stays up all night at the freezing cold Inner Sanctum, trying to break the trick locks with Iris. Ostensibly Franziska shouldn’t have any further investment in the case; she doesn’t owe anything to Phoenix or Maya, and was presumably called away from her other responsibilities to help Edgeworth out, but she still puts herself through the discomfort and hassle of solving the locks for a whole day and night so that she can guarantee Maya’s safety and help put the case to rest.

Another, often overlooked moment is in the case’s denouement, where Franziska is so dismayed by Maya glaring at her that she apologises (to Larry, of all people), and agrees to model for his picture book- and it’s confirmed she went all the way through with it in SoJ!

The anime gets in on this too, with Franziska finding Pearl in Hazakura and taking her back to Maya & the gang in the courthouse. Plus, just look at how fond her expression is:

Not to mention this cute little 4koma showing Franziska getting all flustered over Maya calling her her friend (credit to pastecola on twitter):

3. Their Shared Burdens and their Narrative Parallels

Despite acting so differently, the struggles that Maya and Franziska go through are incredibly similar: both of them are the heirs to a dysfunctional and heavy legacy, Franziska feeling pressured by her father’s crimes and the drive to be perfect and Maya having to be responsible for Kurain Village when she comes of age, struggling to deal with Morgan’s jealousy and impossible expectations, as well as the village’s ruined reputation.

They both undergo great tragedy: Franziska loses the father she deeply admired, and is confronted with the harsh reality that he was never perfect, and (although she never truly believes Miles is dead) loses her brother, in a sense; Maya loses her sister Mia and even gets accused of her murder, as well as losing her mother- twice.

The way they deal with it is very different, but they undeniably have similar life experiences, and can be considered as parallels to each other. They’re the same age; Maya even calls herself Phoenix’s “big sister” a few times in T&T, similarly to how Franziska calls Edgeworth her “little brother”. If they were to become close, they’d easily be able to empathise with and understand each other’s struggles. They’d both benefit: for Maya to be with someone like Franziska who will take her seriously and honestly admire her, helping her out of her insecurity, and for Franziska to be with someone like Maya who will encourage her to be more light-hearted and indulge in her mischievous streak from time to time, as well as being able to assure her that nobody is perfect and she deserves love anyway... It would be an ideal arrangement for the both of them.

4. Their “Opposites Attract” Dynamic

Despite having similar struggles and common life experiences, Franziska and Maya are totally different people. Franziska is serious, hardworking, intimidating and easily frustrated; Maya is light-hearted, more playful, approachable and gets depressed more often than she gets angry. Their flaws and strengths complement each other perfectly- Maya’s endless enthusiasm would encourage Franziska to let her hair down a little more, which in turn would help Maya see that nobody is flawless or untouchable and help ease her insecurities. Their personalities are complementary enough that they could easily rely on and improve each other, but not become dependent on each other.

And besides, the idea of Franziska frantically trying to appease Pearl in any way she can so that she’ll approve of Franziska is objectively hilarious. Plus they’re an excellent complement ship to Narumitsu!

It’s definitely not the most obvious pairing in the franchise, but it’s still a ship that has a lot going for it and could develop into a genuinely compelling romance with a lot more nuance and complexity than it first appears to have- it’s no wonder it’s achieved the recent popularity it has.

Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone!

#franmaya #ace attorney #maya fey #franziska von karma #mayomei #...do people call it mayomei any more?#mine #soph's meta

562 notes · View notes

sketchy-squiggles · 3 years

Text

Miles Edgeworth Gets A Migraine

A little over 1000 words of self-indulgent narumitsu.

Miles Edgeworth did not have a migraine. He simply had a headache, the kind that always followed a long day of reading case files, the dry, lengthy paragraphs making his vision blur. Sometimes, his vision stayed foggy when he looked up, with little dark splotches obscuring his sight in inky patches that resembled the notes he had scrawled on the sides of each paper. That was just what a hard day of work did to a person sometimes. A sign of focus.

“I dunno, that sounds like a migraine to me,” Wright replied after his lengthy explanation. He opened his mouth to argue but Wright cut him off and called down the hall, “Gumshoe, how often does he get migraines?”

“Hm maybe once every week or two,” the detective called back, “the calming tea is in the blue box on the shelf for it, pal.”

Edgeworth groaned and put a hand to his temple.

“I daresay I wouldn’t have a headache at all if my office were empty.”

The remark came out weaker than expected, as turning up to glare at his unwelcome visitor made Edgeworth’s head spin.

“Are you sure you’re alright? You’re looking a little pale to me.”

The genuine care in Wright’s voice made him feel more nauseous than the pain did, and his stomach did another flip.

“I am perfectly finngh!” Edgeworth slammed his hand on the table and winced at the sound. Sitting up made his vision swim again. He tried to look Wright in the eye again, to prove how serious he was, but the corner of the room housing Phoenix Wright became a blur that wouldn’t clear no matter how much he blinked.

“Objection,” a voice said much quieter than usual, and Edgeworth felt a hand come to steady his shoulder, “I don’t think you are. And I don’t think you’re going to take a break unless I make you.”

Now his coat was being slipped around his arms, the way someone would coax a child into one.

“Wright…” Edgeworth realized how little energy he had left to argue.

“Charge me for a consultation or something if you can’t stand not working, but I’m consulting you on how to walk you home.”

“You couldn’t afford it,” was all he could muster as he was marched out of his own office.

It would feel weird, having Wright in his house, if the pain in his head wasn’t distracting him. A hand prompted him to take off his coat, guided him up the stairs, and tried to get him to sit down; he obeyed all the suggestions mechanically, feeling like he was in a dream.

“I found some ibuprofen in your medicine cabinet, but you’re almost out,” Wright reappearing in the doorway started Edgeworth back into reality, “I got you some water to take it with too, unless you don’t drink tap water and have some fancier bottled kind you-”

“I am fine,” Edgeworth interrupted.

Nonetheless, he took the painkiller with a few swallows of water.

“I’m not going to argue if you’re fine again, but can I ask what makes your migraines go away?”

Edgeworth shrugged.

“Sleep, I suppose. When I wake the next day, the pain is gone, even if my head still feels a bit cloudy afterward.”

“So why not sleep?”

Again that earnest voice made his stomach do a flip.

Perhaps it was because they were in his home, a place with none of the expectations of their usual offices, that he found himself answering. The dim light and drawn curtains of the bedroom reminded him of the confessional feel of sleepovers from long ago, whispering secrets to a friend obscured by the dark.

“It is, for lack of better word...boring,” he turned his face in case Wright could see it growing red, “it may hurt to read or watch anything, but it doesn’t mean I’m tired, and sitting in the dark with nothing but a pounding head…and once I lie down, it’s too hard to get back up.”

He could feel his hand grip his sleeve in embarrassment. A hand was on his back but he couldn’t meet Wright’s eye; he didn’t want to see his pity.

“Alright, you got me,” the cheerful voice took him by surprise, “I guess you get to add another hour or two to this consultation bill.”

The bed creaked Phoenix Wright, rival attorney, made himself at home on the other side of the bed.

“You lie here and I’ll keep you company until you’re tired. Don’t worry, I have notes for a case on me that I can review, and I’m sure talking to me will bore you to sleep pretty fast.”

The absurdity of it all made Edgeworth laugh. He closed his eyes and leaned back into the bed.

“Yes, do enlighten me about what goes through that head of yours.”

Just as promised, he couldn’t remember what story Wright had been telling; Edgeworth didn’t realize he had even fallen asleep until he awoke hours later. It must have been late, because the room was completely dark, silent except for what sounded like the rhythmic breathing of someone sleeping. Edgeworth tried to remember Wright’s departure, if there was one at all, but his head felt too fuzzy to conjure up any memories. Finally, he rolled back over, grabbing the pillow next to him, and drifted off again.

The next time Edgeworth awoke it was morning. The daylight that peeked through the edges of the curtains was brighter than he was used to; he must have overslept. He bolted up at the realization and got his second shock of the morning. The pillow he had held on to last night was much larger than he thought. In fact, it was sporting crumpled up work clothes and a serious case of bedhead.

“Wright!”

The disheveled form of Phoenix Wright jolted up in bed next to him.

“Oh man, my bad, I must have dozed off too,” he said with a sheepish grin.

“Besides the point. What time is it, Wright?!”

“Don’t worry Edgeworth,” Wright yawned, “you didn’t oversleep. You were talking about how out of it you feel the day after a migraine so I had Maya cancel your morning appointments.”

“What?”

“Yeah, she said she just told everyone you had an urgent case against her to prosecute or something. It’s kinda sad that works, huh, but now you’ve got plenty of time to rest.”

“Oh.”

Edgeworth found himself at a complete lack of words, unsure if he should be angry or touched at the ways his rival had tried to look after him. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d had a morning to himself, and he had most certainly never had a late morning-in with someone sleeping next to him. The reality of it made his cheeks burn; he looked over at Wright to see if he was anywhere near as flustered, but Wright had already rolled over to fall back asleep.

The sight made him feel one hundred different things at once that he couldn’t pin down. He had almost found a word for some of them when Wright sprung up from bed once again.

“Crap!” he yelled, “Maya didn’t cancel my appointments!”

#narumitsu #wrightworth #miles edgeworth #phoenix wright

147 notes · View notes

generalherasyndulla · 2 years

Note

angst 15 and/or fluff 5. narumitsu

Sorry this took awhile but I hope it was worth the wait dude.

5. “OH you’re jealous!”

“You can’t be serious, Wright.”

“C’mon Edgeworth you know I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t have to.”

“And you know that I’m hardly equipped to watch over a child.”

“Awww don’t be like that, Trucy loves you. Plus, it��s only gonna be for an hour, maybe 2 hours tops.”

“What’s so important that you need someone to watch over her so last minute anyway?”

“Well…” Phoenix laughs nervously. Miles can’t see Phoenix through the phone obviously, but he can easily picture Phoenix rubbing the back of his neck as he laughs. He’s probably wearing that stupid hoodie that he has no right looking as attractive as he does in it.

Not that Miles spends a lot of time thinking about the attractiveness of Phoenix Wright or anything.

Oblivious to Miles’ imaginings, Phoenix continues, “So I was planning on going out to dinner tomorrow. I was going to leave Trucy with Maya for the night, but Pearl’s come down with a cold so that’s out. I guess she’d be fine by herself for a bit, but I hate leaving her alone. Normally I’d just cancel but Kristoph already made the reservations and-“

Oh. “Oh, I see.”

He shouldn’t say yes to this. Sure, he’s gets along with Trucy well enough, but he’s never spent any time alone with the girl. Besides he often ends up having so much work to do at home that he’ll hardly have the time to keep her entertained, even if he knew how to do so in the first place. Which he doesn’t because he doesn’t know the first thing about childcare, not really. Sure there was Franziska when they were younger but those were completely different circumstances. Besides, he has absolutely no desire to watch Phoenix’s daughter while that man goes gallivanting off with Kristoph Gavin of all people for the evening.

“Please, Edgeworth.”

Unfortunately, Miles has yet to learn how to say no to Phoenix. Maybe someday he’ll learn. Evidently, today is not that day.

Which is why he’s now spending his Friday evening at home with a 10-year-old girl sitting on the couch flipping through tv channels while he gets some paperwork done. Or he attempts to anyway. It’s a little hard to get work done when one’s mind is preoccupied by... inconvenient thoughts. Such as thinking about Phoenix having dinner with Kristoph Gavin. Which is fine. Phoenix has every right to spend time with others – even that other is Kristoph. Although it seems to be happening a lot lately, as far as Miles can tell. It seems like almost every time Miles tries to make some sort of plans with Phoenix, he is busy with prior plans with Kristoph. Which if it were once in a while that’d be one thing but nearly every week seems excessive in Miles’ opinion. Not that he spends a lot of time thinking about Phoenix and what he does in his spare time. Certainly not.

There’s no reason to get so obsessive about the whole thing. Besides it’s just dinner, going out to dinner doesn’t mean anything. He’s gone out to dinner with Phoenix a bunch of times and that’s never really meant anything, obviously. Although lately most of those times have been with Trucy present. Dinner alone and dinner with a kid are two very different concepts. Miles isn’t exactly an expert on these sorts of things, but he knows that much at least.

Why should it matter if Phoenix has a romantic interest in someone. That’s a perfectly normal thing for someone to want and if Phoenix is happy then that perfectly fine… But why did it have to be Kristoph of all people. Miles hasn’t interacted much with him and Kristoph had been polite enough during the few interactions they have had but Miles doesn’t trust him. He’s not one for intuition mind you, evidence and logic are much more tangible and easier to work with, but he'' make an exception in this case .

And Miles' dislike for him has nothing to do with how much time he’s been spending with Phoenix, thank you very much. It’s just that Phoenix deserves better, that’s all.

“Mr. Edgeworth? Mr. Edgeworth!?” Trucy exclaims breaking Miles out of his awful pondering.

“I’m sorry, did you need something?” Miles shakes his head in a futile attempt to banish the thoughts consuming his mind.

“I've been trying to get your attention forever.” Trucy says. She then tilts her head and looks as if she's examining something. “You’ve been gripping your pen awfully hard, and it doesn’t look you’re writing much.”

Great, he was so obvious about being distracted that even a child could notice. Perfect, just perfect. “I’m fine, I just have some things on my mind. Nothing you need to worry about.”

“…It’s not me, is it?” She asks in a quiet voice, her face showing an unreadable expression.

Oh, wonderful job Miles, you managed to make the child upset. Why did you agree to watch her again? Oh, right your complete inability to ever say no to Wright. “Of course not, like I said it’s nothing to do with you.”

“Good.” Trucy grins and Miles find himself giving a small smile in response. “Yes! I made you smile! Daddy said that was something no one could ever do! He’s never gonna believe me.”

“What sort of ridiculous ideas about me has Wright been filling your head with.” This was the man Miles’ thoughts focused on - how foolish.

“Your grip on your pen tightened when you talked about daddy.” Trucy stares intently at Miles as if he’s some sort of specimen being studied in a lab. “Were you thinking about daddy?”

Miles’ eyes widened a bit. He knew the girl was perceptive for her age, but he wasn’t expecting her to be able to figure him out that easily.

“So, it was about daddy!” Trucy continues. “You and daddy didn’t have a fight or anything? Did you?”

“O-of course not!”

“Hmmm.” Trucy strokes her chin as she continues to stare at Miles as if he were on trial and she was a lawyer seeking the truth. It would be endearing, if Miles wasn’t on the other end of it. “I guess daddy wouldn’t go out for dinner with Mr. Gavin if –“ Trucy freezes midsentence as her eyes widen. She clutches her arm rubbing at the skin by her bracelet.

After a moment of silence Trucy finally speaks up again. “You clutched your pen really tight when I said Mr. Gavin.”

Okay, so once again she’s on the right track but that doesn’t mean anything. Trucy is an incredibly bright child but at the end of the day she’s still only a child. She couldn’t possibly –

“OH, you’re jealous!” she suddenly yells out triumphantly.

“Urk-“ He should deny it. It’d be easy enough to deny it. Because of course he’s not jealous that the man he’s in lo- cares deeply for is having dinner alone with Kristoph Gavin of all people. What is there to even be jealous of. He’s just concerned that Phoenix has been spending so much time with Kristoph lately. There’s something off about Kristoph that he just can’t put his finger on. Jealousy is completely unrelated to that. But before he could so much as utter an objection, Trucy continues.

“You ARE jealous!” Trucy exclaims, seemingly oblivious to the chaos her words have brought. “ I knew it!”

Miles holds his head in his hands. The only thing worse than realizing you can’t deny your true feelings is realizing you can’t deny your feelings because even a child can recognize them. Maybe if he stays quiet Trucy will move on from her revelation and leave Miles to wallow in peace. Or maybe the Earth will finally show him some kindness and swallow him whole ending all of this.

Alas, neither option seems to be happening because Trucy walks up to Miles and begins to hesitantly pat his arm in what's clearly meant to be a comforting fashion. “It’s okay Mr. Edgeworth. Daddy likes you a lot. He smiles more when you visit. And they’re real smiles too. Only the best people get to see daddy’s real smile. I don’t think he ever real smiles with Mr. Gavin.”

This was not happening. Miles Edgeworth was not being reassured by a child, Phoenix Wright’s child specifically, regarding his place in Phoenix’s life. What’s worse is her words actually are affecting him, slightly. There is no way he has sunk this low. And yet all the evidence seems to indicate that he indeed has. He tried to speak up to protest but it seems to once again be a futile endeavor.

“Most importantly I like you better than Mr. Gavin, Mr. Edgeworth. He doesn’t even come to my magic shows like you do.” Trucy says with the kind of confidence only children have. “So there.” She punctuates the last bit with her hand on her hips with a proud expression.

Despite the complete and utter absurdity of this entire situation, Trucy’s words are nice to here. He may not be good with children per se but it’s a comfort to know that despite everything, both Wrights clearly care for him. Not that he ever doubted that Phoenix cares, even if it’s not necessarily the same way he does, but still hearing it spoken out loud like that is nice.

“That’s enough, Trucy,” Miles says, attempting to compose himself. “Now what will it take to make sure your father has no idea this conversation ever happened?”

“Hmm…” Trucy considers this for a moment. “Ice cream?”

Miles chuckles slightly. It’s a simple enough request at least and it seems Miles is incapable of saying no to both Wrights. “Very well.” He stands up off of his desk to get his keys. “I believe there’s a place not too far from here.”

“Really, thanks Uncle Miles!” Trucy pauses immediately after what she just said. “Oh, that just slipped out.”

“That’s alright,” Miles smiles at the child, quick to reassure her. “You may call me that, if you wish.”

“Okay! Thanks, Uncle Miles.”

#miles edgeworth #trucy wright #phoenix wright #ace attorney #my fic #narumitsu #although honestly the narumitsu is like more of a background thing whoops #no romance only family bonding lmaooooo #hope you liked it dude

46 notes · View notes

viridiave · 3 years

Text

NARUMITSU <ATTEMPTING TO READ THE SUBTEXT PLATONICALLY>

*Wrote all this some time last month so I might be off- really really off- also full disclosure I too am a Narumitsu shipper- this is just me giving myself a bad time doing the impossible and having fun XD

-I am going to fail sooner or later. Looking at you, Bridge to the Turnabout.

FIRST GAME >Turnabout Samurai -Yep. We're jumping right in with 'unnecessary feelings'. I'm going to be put on a stake for this. -This is going to become the main argument with any and all homoerotic subtext present in the first game- that it was unintentional. They didn't actively start making it gay until the second game, and even before then the producer for the games had to warn the development team not to try and insert these themes for fear of getting it wrong and lose the fanbase they'd accidentally caught the eye of. I can still create arguments for why this specific, hilariously meme-able line could be read romantically of course- but as far as the game development team at the time was concerned this interaction was never meant to be read as romantic. -Unease and uncertainty are... very valid feelings for Edgeworth to feel at this very moment and as much as I'd like to joke that he was feeling uncertain about his sexuality after seeing his childhood friend as an adult, this line was really just likely meant to lead up to the conclusion of Turnabout Goodbyes and Edgeworth's character arc for this game. His perfect win streak had just been shattered in a case prior. In this case, he was meant to persecute the lead actor of his favorite show- and in some ways his helping the defense can be taken as his biases getting the better of him. His sense of justice and his entire worldview is about to be overhauled, and I can see how he would regard this budding doubt in himself as an unnecessary (heh) distraction from what he believes is his true purpose in life.

>Turnabout Goodbyes -Edgeworth wanting to keep him away from DL-6 has its own section mostly because of how stubborn he becomes when it comes to Phoenix's insistence in particular. It's clear that this stubbornness is a front, I will concede with that- but there are merits to his initial reluctance in accepting Phoenix's defense. It's evident that Phoenix himself has grown over the course of the game so far, but in both of the times that he faced off against Edgeworth in court, his victories were... a tad bit contrived. For instance in Turnabout Sisters, Phoenix really only wins because Mia was being channeled and blackmailed White as he was about to leave the stand. Turnabout Samurai is a little better- but had him rely on quite a lot of coincidences (proven later to be substantiated) that surfaced during the trial. This is nothing to say of the deeper reason Edgeworth has over dissuading Phoenix from taking his case ("You in particular I cannot ask to do this.")- where I can make an argument for his pride and/or concern over Phoenix's career as an attorney. The stakes are relatively high here as well- if Phoenix fails, Edgeworth is incarcerated, Manfred von Karma goes free, DL-6 goes cold once again with no hope of getting re-opened, and everything that Phoenix has been working towards as an attorney would have been in vain. DL-6 is a case that has ruined many lives- it'd make sense if Edgeworth himself felt as though it would be a waste of time and effort to take this case because of how convinced he was of murdering his own father prior to Gourd Lake. He'd grown up for the past 15 years with a nightmare and a death sentence over his head- I wouldn't be surprised if he simply gave up and accepted that he was going to die at the hands of his prosecuting mentor. Even if he were acquitted for the murder of Robert Hammond, his perceived involvement in DL-6 would have thrown a wrench in his freedom- any lesser attorney would have given up on that. And this is unloaded BEFORE Phoenix tells him about the true reason as to why he became an attorney. -Phoenix's insistence to defend Edgeworth in this case can easily just be read as platonic- his complete, unfettered faith in Edgeworth's innocence is heavily influenced by that class trial, for better or for worse. While I'm perfectly happy to imagine that Phoenix's attachment to his idealized version of Edgeworth grew into something deeper sometime in the fifteen years that he hasn't seen him, I do believe that Phoenix in particular really is just that much of a sentimental person. This is to say nothing of his nature as a defense attorney- and what little time he's managed to spend with Mia has taught him that unbridled trust in his client is what gets him through the day, and he's putting it to practice here. Edgeworth was what he has been working towards the moment he decided he would practice law- as Phoenix at this point in time still believes that he could do no wrong despite seeing what Edgeworth is truly like in court. -Cutting into the meat of Phoenix and Edgeworth's shared past, I made a point earlier to say that Phoenix's perception of Edgeworth as a person is idealized. Every memory that Phoenix has had of Edgeworth prior to the events of the first game were from their childhood- and they had 4-8 months (plus one year if we're generous with the retconning some of the official art gave us) MAX to develop a friendship so strong that Phoenix makes major life decisions just to meet with this man. The fact that this time spent together was ENOUGH for Phoenix in the first place is... really hard to skirt around. To quote Dan from GameGrumps "this is something that you would only do for someone you're trying to marry" and if one of them was a woman I guarantee this ship would be canon already. But then again- since this is Phoenix Wright in particular somehow I can believe that he really is just that sentimental- and that isn't always a bad thing. He'd managed to save Edgeworth twice with this conviction after all. When Phoenix sees Edgeworth, he doesn't see a demon prosecutor, he sees his childhood friend who aimed to become a shining example of justice following in his father's footsteps. They address how shaky his foundations for becoming an attorney were in the Phoenix Wright Files once actually- going through a mini-existential crisis because he'd become an attorney with the main goal of saving Edgeworth from what he'd become, and now that he's accomplished that he's just kind of... lost. Edgeworth himself manages to pull him out of this, though. -man that hurts my case a lot actually but to be fair I was banking on failing -I just didn't expect it to happen so early even with the first game -in fact ESPECIALLY with the first game -though I cannot for the life of me wonder how I can come up with a heterosexual explanation for why the buildup towards Edgeworth telling Phoenix and Maya about his nightmares reads so much like a stunted love confession. I'm serious- just read any high school shojo manga ever. You'll find that it hits a lot of the same beats.

>Rise From The Ashes -It's in this case that we observe some of the consequences that the intial upheaval of Edgeworth's worldview in Turnabout Goodbyes causes him; distrust in the enforcement of the law. Not exactly the time for him to be dabbling in another, meme-able brand of unnecessary feelings. Several things like the Prosecutor's Office's relationship with the Police Department starts to waver with the murder of Bruce Goodman, and this becomes the final nail in the coffin for Edgeworth's worldviews and values as a prosecutor. His and Phoenix's teamwork in this trial becomes prevalent- the story behind the King of Prosecutors award represents this best despite it's currently incomplete state. The backstory behind this award paints an ideal of justice in the courtroom wherein the truth comes out as a result of the efforts of contradictory forces. A broken halberd that can cut through any shield (the prosecution) and a broken, unbreakable shield (the defense). Read as representation the text becomes something of a metaphor for the ideal justice that manifests itself in the best parts of Edgeworth and Phoenix respectively- the duality of their opposing professions rather than something that is limited to their relationship. -The same argument that I've used for Phoenix's unwavering belief in Edgeworth's innocence in Turnabout Goodbyes can be used for this case as well. -Though Edgeworth still goes M.I.A for a year after this case, it does grant his disappearance a bit more context as to why exactly it is that he left- and I'll be taking a tiny liberty with this and apply the interpretation that the Miles Edgeworth Files grants us, and that he left in order to better himself and grow as a person, a prosecutor, and as a friend to Phoenix Wright. It's... difficult for me to want to read this as anything but romantically-charged because the narrative beats are NOT lost on me (the dialogue makes this especially hard. send help.)- there's a possibility that Edgeworth at this point in time realizes the value in having a better, more functional dynamic with the one defense attorney who he considers a true equal in court. This dynamic will allow for less chances to encounter missteps and errors in any verdicts handed down in court, and if Edgeworth is to pursue his ideal of justice- Phoenix Wright is undoubtedly essential to this endeavor. The aftermath of Rise From The Ashes is indicative of this newfound goal of his- the symbolism behind the old King of Prosecutors award and the two halves of the evidence list certainly helps this case. -<"It seems all you do is worry about me." -Miles Edgeworth, Rise From The Ashes> For good fucking reason Edgeworth. You were accused of murder and have implicated yourself on the stand for DL-6 just a few months ago- and if the Investigations games are anything to go by, you're more of a danger magnet than PHOENIX is. I had to say it. The first Investigations game takes place over the course of 2-3 days and the sheer amount of shit that Edgeworth had to deal with in between that interval truly makes me wonder how Phoenix Wright ended up with the title of danger magnet. And THIS time- Edgeworth's car becomes a crime scene because his corrupt superiors needed a convenient way of transporting a corpse. There's VERY good reasons to worry about the livelihood of Miles Edgeworth. -Okay I... can't believe I forgot about the chessboard. Here's the kicker- the one we see from his office isn't even the only one he owns. I... legitimately cannot give you ANY purely heterosexual, platonic explanation for why Miles Edgeworth has THREE (THREE. I CANNOT OVERSTATE THIS. HE HAS T H R E E OF THESE FUCKING THINGS. GOOD GOD. HE CAN'T BE ANY MORE EXTRA.)(there exists a similar, portable set in the Investigations games- and he has a new set by the time of Dual Destinies) sets of custom-made chessboards with personalized, highly-specific red and blue designs made purely to depict his rivalry with Phoenix Wright. I fold. I give up. I forgot about the chessboards I wAS NOT EXPECTING TO FAIL THIS E A R LY- -You know what the real kicker is with Rise From the Ashes? The main argument that I have introduced back in Turnabout Samurai does not apply here. Rise From the Ashes was made as a DS-exclusive case and did not exist in the original GameBoy version of the Trilogy. Which means if there is homoerotic tension written in for this case (and there happens to be a lot. the chessboard is proof enough.), then we can safely assume that the writers at this point were well-aware. So yeah- maybe don't feel TOO bad about the unnecessary feelings line- because ever since then the writers have been playing off of that and it SHOWS. -Is there really a point to this I'm just- everything is stacked against me tryna interpret this platonically -Like I know I make a point to say that a romantic relationship isn't the end-all of all relationships because this franchise LOVES pushing the Found Family dynamic and I'm an absolute sucker for that -good god by the time Dual Destinies rolls around I'll probably just give up and happily say they're happily married -that's literally what they act like don't even pretend

#narumitsu #wrightworth #ace attorney #gyakuten saiban #phoenix wright #naruhodou ryuuichi #miles edgeworth #mitsurugi reiji #i'll probably write more once school blows over #so have the first game for now #trust me i tried #maybe i'm just not an anti-shipper and that's why i failed #uh feel free to set the comments on fire #but like civilly #we're all here to have fun okay #even if fun means shipping

41 notes · View notes

monimolimnion · 3 years

Text

yarrow [franmaya]

now reposted with a fancy cover!

name: yarrow fandom: Ace Attorney | Gyakuten Saiban pairing: Ayasato Mayoi | Maya Fey/Karuma Mei | Franziska von Karma wordcount/chapters: 1/1, 13.5k additional tags: Hurt/Comfort, like very literally hurt comfort, Background Narumitsu, Dream Sequence, set mid-disbarment but no real spoilers past trilogy, tw blood, tw guns, tw descriptions of injury and also for ad-hoc medical procedures performed by someone who has no idea what they’re doing, this was meant to be 3k or less but i have no self control, franmaya good you can’t change my mind

summary:

“I have been stabbed,” Franziska says with no preamble, sitting down at the tiny melamine table as matter-of-factly as if this had been a casual visit for tea on a Sunday. “Yeah,” says Maya. “I noticed that.” Maya feels the cogs in her brain freewheeling with nothing to catch onto, her head still half in the dream, because for all she knows she’s still dreaming. How else does it make sense that Franziska is even here, right now? It’s one hell of a coincidence, put it that way. Franziska just eyes her from across the kitchen with that razor-edge gaze, and raises a perfectly manicured eyebrow. “Not that I’m not… happy to see you.” Actually, that’s probably an understatement, “But, uh, shouldn’t you be in a hospital?”

Maya Fey has an oddly prophetic dream.

Read it on AO3!

#ace attorney #franmaya #mayomei #narumitsu #sorry not sorry for double posting #prepare for me to be very obnoxious about this fic i'm very proud of it #momo writes

27 notes · View notes

browniefox · 3 years

Text

Waking from the Long Winter

Ace Attorney - 5K Words

Phoenix Wright and a few moments during the ten weeks it takes to receive results from the Bar Exam.

A one-shot written solely for the half-joke I make within the first couple paragraphs lol. Character exploration of Phoenix finding himself again. Hinted narumitsu but just hinted.

oOo

Phoenix is sure there’s a joke here, somewhere.

Something about a lawyer walking into a bar, and then knowing to duck the second time. Or maybe not ducking, but running into it at top speed. Or trying to vault over the bar and getting his feet caught on it and falling on his face instead. There’s something there, he’s sure of it. More than anything, however, Phoenix wishes his brain would focus on the Actual Bar Exam instead of trying to make this stupid joke work.

He took the bar once before, of course. His memory of having done so, however, is shaky at best. Trying to look back at it, it’s nothing more than two days of pure stress. If he tries to pin the experience down to a word, it's just a really long and drawn out scream.

Taking the bar the second time, ten years later, is… different.

Phoenix studied, of course. Apollo had still had his flashcards and big binder full of notes. Slow days in the office were often punctuated with spontaneous quizzing on terms and laws and procedures. He’d spent late nights reading big law books and then falling asleep on top of them like he was in college again. He sat in on a lot of trials, reviewing the roles of the people in the court.

Now that he’s finally actually taking the Bar, it’s like a math test.

Obvious not as far as subject matter went. But it reminds him strongly of what taking a math test back in middle/high school had been like. Going into it scared and then being surprised by how quickly and easily he seemed to go through the questions. Of course, that also always ended with him getting the test back with a million red marks that revealed the test hadn’t been easy, he’d just been dumb.

For the first five minutes, nerves making Phoenix fidgety, the Bar exam had been scary and the words had refused to form comprehensive sentences. He’s pretty sure he almost had a panic attack. But then the five minutes pass, and Phoenix takes a few deep breaths, and when he opens his eyes again, he realizes he actually does know this stuff.

He was a lawyer, once, seven years ago. It feels like that should be more than enough time for him to have forgotten what being one was like, for all of the words to have become greek to him once more. And yet, his previous cases stick out to him on the page. Yes, he remembers using evidence law for the Skye case, he knows this. Ah, yes, he remembers studying this case because it reminds him of the Powers one. There’s even a question about spirit mediums at one point and Phoenix almost laughs out loud.

It probably also doesn’t hurt that he’d kept his enemies close during his disbarment, as well as working on MASON.

Kristoph had often asked for Phoenix’s opinion on cases, setting out the evidence and asking for the ex-lawyer’s input and expertise. He wonders if it was supposed to sting, if Kristoph had been trying to rub salt into the wound. If so, he had succeeded, sometimes. Other times, it’d been nice to fall back into those familiar ways of thinking, of trying to piece together a story, of trying to find justice.

Phoenix would never ever thank Kristoph for anything ever, but he did admit there were unexpected rewards for having put up with him for so long.

oOo

Paying for a barber hasn’t exactly been in the budget for years.

Not that there weren’t places you could get a haircut at fairly cheap, but every single dollar and penny counted. Even the months where things looked alright, where there was a comfortable sum left over after rent and taxes and food, most of it was set aside for when the rough times would return. They always did.

“Just a trim?” Trucy asks. She wears the fake mustache she insists on wearing every time he asks her to cut his hair. Her own was just trimmed by him, the floor littered with split ends. There’s layers throughout it, and now that it’s started to dry back out he can see his handiwork and nods to himself. The days of terrible and uneven cuts while trying to watch a video tutorial are well behind both of them, years of practice instead showing through.

The swivel chair from the desk has been moved into the bathroom and Phoenix looks at himself in the mirror, his hair for once not bunched up inside of his beanie. It’s long enough to pull back with a hair tie. Trucy is already gearing up to cut off an inch, the same inch she cuts off every time to keep it from getting too long. For years, that’s been the only reason to cut his hair. He runs his fingers through it. It’s to his shoulders right now and he blinks when he realizes that he hates it.

He hates how the long strands get in his face. He hates how sometimes he pulls his beanie off and his hair is staticy. He hates how if he doesn’t pull it back while cooking, if he has something on his hands, he has to awkwardly flick his head in usually-futile attempts to get the hair out of the way.

He hates it and he’s hated it for a while. But for some reason, every time before now, it’s felt easier and safer to keep it long and annoying.

“Actually,” He says, and then hesitates. He’s had his hair like this for so long now, and shorter hair… He steels himself and straightens a bit, “Actually, Truce, could you go a little shorter this time? Just, you know, a little-”

“Don’t worry, daddy, leave it to me!”

There’s a mischievous little glint in her eyes and Phoenix almost changes his mind, but she’s already spun the chair around and started cutting. Phoenix closes his eyes and waits. Trucy hums as she cuts his hair, and usually she does little tricks with the scissors, but this time she’s just cutting. He tries not to think about how close to his head the scissors sound, how much she must be cutting off. He’d asked her to, and he hates how long it was, and yet now that it’s too late to change his mind he’s nervous.

“Alright!” Trucy chirps and spins him back around to face the mirror. Phoenix opens his eyes.

A young lawyer, full of hope and trust and pure stubbornness, stares back at him.

And then he blinks, and the man has little tired wrinkles around his eyes and at the corners of his mouth and prominently between his eyebrows. He still has the couple-day-old stubble that he had yet to shave. There’s dark shadows under his eyes. He runs a hand through his hair. It spikes up in the back, just like it used to, just like it always has, like how his mom used to hate and try in vain to flatten down.

“Well, what do you think?” Trucy beams at him.

“It’s perfect.” He says.

And it’s true.

oOo

Phoenix has never owned a perfectly tailored suit in his life. He never found an issue with this. Off the rack was just fine, and a lot cheaper, and you didn’t have to worry about anything happening to it.

Apparently Miles thought that this was an issue.

Two weeks after Phoenix took the bar, Miles drags him to get a new suit. Phoenix stresses that his old suit was perfectly fine. He at least assumes it's fine. It is shoved somewhere near the back of his closet and by now is probably made up of as much dust as fabric. But it should still looks like a suit, and he can probably send it to the dry cleaners or something if he ever needs it.

Still, Miles insists on dragging him to get a new suit.

The people there all recognize Miles right of the bat, greeting him as ‘Mr. Edgeworth’, with a lot of ‘So good to see you again’ and ‘Are you here for the usual’ and ‘How is dear Ms. Von Karma doing’. His answers are amicable enough: ‘It’s nice to be back in the country.’ ‘No, not today, I’m here for my friend.’ ‘Franziska is doing well, thank you.’

Phoenix sees how they look at him when they don’t think he can see them. They don’t know that Phoenix is well used to being on guard constantly, no matter the time or place. He cedes that maybe he should’ve worn something today other than his hoodie and beanie and flip flops, especially with how the ‘flip-flop-flip-flop’ is just shy of echoing throughout the large store. He knows they must look an interesting pair, prim and perfect well put together Prosecutor Miles Edgeworth next to disbarred pianist and poker player Phoenix Wright. He doesn’t let it bother him as Miles picks around the room, finding suits that he approves of.

There’s too many shades of blue. Half the time, Miles holds up two and asks which one Phoenix likes more, and they look exactly the same. Still, they eventually end up with a few different ones for Phoenix to try on, and Miles and one of the men - the tailor? Maybe? Or the owner of the store? - walk around Phoenix and critique how it looks on him and then send him back to try on another. It reminds Phoenix how much he hates shopping. The whole process of having to try things on and take them off and then repeat is just a bit too tedious for his sake.

Miles more than Phoenix decides on which suit is best out of the ones he’s picked out, and then Phoenix's measurements are taken so that it can be fixed to fit him just right.

They’re looking at the ties, the last thing to grab before they leave, when Phoenix finally says,

“I haven’t passed the Bar Exam yet.”

Miles pauses for a second, then hangs the white tie back up. He doesn’t turn to face Phoenix but his eyes do glance over.

“You took the test.” He says, and Phoenix can hear the unsaid in there. ‘You took the test, right? You didn’t lie about that? You didn’t purposely sabotage your own test? You haven’t done something incredibly stupid already, have you?’

“I did.” Phoenix nods, and means ‘I really did. I gave it my all. I tried my best, I swear it.’

“Then you’ll need a new suit.” Miles says.

“But I haven’t passed yet.”

“Mm,” Miles hums, grabbing a dark red tie and looking it over, comparing it to the swatch of fabric that matches the color of Phoenix’s new suit, “You’re not going to fail.”

“But-”

“If you fail, then you’ll still have a new suit. There’s more reasons than being an attorney to own a nice suit, you know. If you ever eat somewhere nicer than the Borsch Bowl, for one. Or I have a wide array of incessant events I’m expected to attend throughout the year. They’ll be more manageable if I have someone there with me, but there is usually a dress code. Or perhaps I’ll be in need of a co-council at some point. I could use your eyes, and lord knows they’ll let absolutely anybody co-council, qualifications be damned.”

Miles doesn’t say anything else, and neither does Phoenix. He does, however, pick a wine red tie and add it to the growing stack.

oOo

When he moves the items off of the piano, he’s careful to make sure he remembers where everything goes.

It’s his office, it’s his piano, and while maybe most of the things he takes off aren’t his they also haven’t been touched in weeks, and he doubts that Trucy or Apollo would notice anything different. Still, he feels oddly like a kid sneaking food out of the cupboards while his parents are out. Trucy is setting up for a show and Apollo is out looking at a crime scene. It’s the perfect chance.

He lifts up the covering from the keys of the piano. He sits down on the bench, and a chill rushes over him that isn’t there. He can almost hear the sound of the Borscht Bowl, the clamour of patrons. He’s played this piano so few times, he can count them on one hand. He’d given practice a couple tries when he first got hired, until it became clear that being paid not to play was probably just as lucrative - if not more so - than actually having the skill.

Phoenix rests his hands on the keys, cold ivory under his warm fingers. He’d taken classes, once, years and years ago, when he was small and young. His piano teacher then had been an old and nice woman, but she’d had to stop teaching after a few months due to health problems. He can still find middle C, and that is more or less where his skills end. Usually, when someone requests a song, he plays ‘hot cross buns’ or ‘heart and soul’ or any other classic of the sort.

This time, Phoenix lets himself bang around with wild abandon on the keys, like he had as a kid, caring little for melody or timing or anything at all. The piano is probably out of tune. Not that he can hear that sort of thing, but it's a fair and safe bet to make. The piano hasn’t been played in a long while.

He steps away for a moment and runs a finger over the spines of the books on the shelves until he came across a thin one, so thin that the spine didn’t have any kind of title, just staples holding the pages together. Some hot-shot customer had come into the Borscht Bowl, slapped the ‘Beginner’s Piano Lessons’ book on the top of the piano and declared that Phoenix was going to need it once he was beaten at poker that night.

Of course, Phoenix had won. He got to keep the book anyway. By ‘got to keep’, he meant the customer had punched Phoenix in a fit of rage after losing and had been kicked out, leaving the book behind. Phoenix had kept it.

He isn't any good at reading music, but he has the afternoon to himself. He gets out a pencil, writing the letters above the notes, counting the keys to make sure his fingers land on the right ones. It is slow, and tedious, and not something he has to do. It's something he's doing because he wants to.

oOo

Phoenix has a love-hate relationship with Parent-Teacher Conferences.

He loves to go when the teachers will tell him ‘oh, Trucy is a joy to have in class! Trucy brings such a brightness to the classroom! Trucy is brilliant, what an amazing daughter you have! She’s so talented!’ And then Phoenix gets to beam at Trucy, and Trucy gets to glow under the praise, and then he gets handed her report card that he can place on the fridge so he can look at it every morning and be filled with pride again.

He doesn’t so much like them when the teachers look at him funny.

Look, Phoenix is an adult, he can admit that his appearance took a pretty sharp decline after he was disbarred. But some days it was all he could do to put on the hoodie and beanie, and he had learned pretty early in how to rationalize it all away as ‘putting on an act’, as trying to get Kristoph to underestimate him. However, an adult man who adopted a daughter, and thus had had someone declare him fit to raise a kid, looking like he was one trip to McDonalds away from being completely broke wasn’t always the best way to present one’s self to other adults, especially ones on high alert make sure their students were in a stable living condition.

One time, Trucy had even had to warn him to clean up a bit. She’d picked up on the worried questions her teacher had been asking her, about how often she ate and what her dad did for a living. Phoenix had put on actual shoes and a button up for that PTC. The teacher had still looked at him suspiciously, but he’d done his best to exude confidence and ‘I’m perfectly capable of raising a child on my own’. He couldn’t risk losing Trucy. If he lost Trucy…

He can’t lose Trucy.

Of course, the days of those sorts of PTC’s are behind them. Now that Trucy’s in high school and has eight different teachers, PTC’s consist of going between the school’s cafeteria and library to find Trucy’s teachers, get told if she’s a good student or a distraction or doing well or doing poorly, and then heading right to the next teacher. Some teachers they just outright skip, like Trucy’s gym teachers.

“C’mon Daddy, you have to dress up too!”

Trucy spins around in her magician outfit. The straplessness of the dress made it against the school’s dress code, so she never got to wear it to classes. She’d been talking about showing it off during the PTC, when school wasn’t technically in session, and Phoenix knew that she was probably going to take the chance to dazzle her teachers with some of her smaller tricks as well.

Put that in the list of reasons why he did like PTC: getting to see people be amazed with Trucy’s close-up magic tricks.

“Trucy,” Phoenix sighs.

“No, please? I always get dressed up, and you never do.” She pouts, crossing her arms.

“That’s because you’re the star of the show tonight.”

“But you’re my assistant! Please, just this once? I know you don’t like getting dressed up, but...” And then Trucy hesitates, which is so unlike her it catches Phoenix’s attention right away, “But I’d like it.” She finishes. For a moment, the room is plunged into darkness that only Phoenix can see as chains shoot out of nowhere and a single psych-lock places itself in front of Trucy.

Phoenix sighs one more time. He’s not going to pry, not unless it becomes a big deal.

“Sure, can’t have you performing with a sub-par partner.” He relents and Trucy claps her hand excitedly.

He goes back into his room, reaching for a button down. Something simple, he figures. Just something a little nicer than usual.

And he sees the suit Miles had bought him.

It’s in a big black bag to keep it safe from dust or whatever. Almost without thinking to, he takes the hanger off the rack and sets it on his bed, unzipping the bag and looking at the suit. It’s so much like to his old one. He runs a hand over it and then almost puts it back. But if he can’t wear it to a PTC, how can he wear it to any of the myriad of events Miles had listed off? He used to wear a suit everywhere. It had been border-line mandatory.

“Hurry up, Daddy, or we’ll be late!”

Phoenix jumps at the banging on his door.

“Just a minute, sweetie!” He shouts back.

It feels… different. He blames that on the light blue waistcoat that Edgeworth had insisted on. That, and the fact that it was a suit that was made to fit him exactly. His old suit had been second-hand, all that he’d been able to afford at the time. The blue, what many people seemed to remember about him, had been due to lack of options rather than real choice.

He looks at himself in the mirror, running a wet hand through his hair to try and get it into some semblance of presentable. He still has his stubble. He hadn’t shaved this morning. It’s not too late to tear off the jacket and vest and go with his original plan of just a button up.

“Daddy!” Trucy calls again.

“I’m coming, I’m coming!” He shouts back, and with one last look at himself, one last effort to convince himself he looks fine, leaves his apartment looking more like the Turnabout Terror than he has in years.

oOo

More of Miles’ things seem to come weekly.

Apparently Franziska is doing a deep and thorough cleaning of the Von Karma estate. She keeps finding more things, and so boxes and boxes turn up on Miles’ doorstep.

Phoenix finds himself spending a lot of his time in Miles’ office, and it means he ends up spending a lot of time helping Miles unpack boxes. Some of them are things that really shouldn’t have surprised Phoenix, like Steel Samurai manga and dvds that Franziska has unearthed from hidden corners of the estate. Miles had admitted he’d kept them anywhere he thought Manfred wouldn’t look. Other little things like that showed up - small mementos or notes, most of which seem innocuous, but that Miles insists would’ve been disapproved of.

There are also other things, like pens or books or pictures. Some of these do belong to Miles while others of them are items Franziska 'didn’t wish to hold on to any longer’. While that seemed to be the case with some, it only took looking at Miles face to confirm for Phoenix that a lot of them had secret sentimental value.

He never understood their relationship. He’d been an only child, and while there were people he was close to, he’d never grown up in the same building with them, nor under the harsh condition Miles and Franziska had. He's glad he doesn't have to jump through the weird hoops and unsaid rules that Miles and Franziska do when navigating anything to do with the other.

“Okay, you can’t tell me these are important.” Phoenix holds up a pair of scissors. They’re cold and pure metal, no plastic handle like the three pairs Phoenix himself owns. All three of them always go missing at the same time too, which completley defeatst he point of having so many pairs.

Miles sighs and rolls his eyes. He’s sitting on the ground in front of the bookshelf. With the most recent influx of books, alphabetizing them means that the previous books need to be pushed to the next shelf, and it has created a chain of necessary rearrangement to every subsequent shelf as well. Phoenix has seen Miles force the work onto some younger prosecutors or even unlucky detectives, but with Phoenix here he does it himself.

“Open them up.” He says and Phoenix does just that. There are initials welded into the metal, M.E.V.K. Phoenix raises his eyebrows.

“Miles Edgeworth… Von Karma?” He says, just to be sure, and Miles nods.

“Mm, yes. Those are my shears. Franziska insisted on the initials so that if I ruined my pair, she’d be able to tell they were mine right away, and I wouldn’t be able to try and steal hers. She took them to get initialed herself.”

He speaks of the event with the calm and cool that is so Edgeworth, but Phoenix has learned to read between lines. He runs a finger over the four initials. Von Karma. The household Edgeworth had lived in and belonged to in all but the official name change. The name that he was able to carry on these shears.

“I’ll put them in your desk.” Phoenix says instead of the millions of other responses running through his head. He’s standing in front of it anyway. He pulls open the first drawer as Miles says,

“No, I’ll be taking them home. They’re fabric scissors, Phoenix. Using them on paper will ruin them.”

Phoenix’s response to that completely leaves his head when he sees the small golden pin in the drawer.

“What’s this?” He says, more to himself than Miles. He knows what it is, and yet he asks anyway. It’s a defense attorney pin. He can see the petals, the image of scales in the center. It’s not as if he hasn’t seen one recently, he has defense attorneys working for him, after all. But it’s so out of place to see one in Prosecutor Miles Edgeworth’s office that it takes him completely by surprise. He picks it up, turning it this way and that.

“Is this... your dad’s?” He asks, the first answer that comes to mind.

“Is what- oh. No. It isn’t.” Miles is looking over now, and there’s something in his voice that makes Phoenix’s brow furrow. He sounds… hesitant? Scared? Nervous? None of those seemed quite right, but Miles didn’t seem completely at ease. Phoenix returned his focus to the pin.

There are teeth marks in it, like someone had bit into it at one point. The edges of it are worn slightly, softened with time. It’s nostalgic to look at.

It’s even more nostalgic to turn over and see the number 26381.

“Wait, this is…!” Phoenix stares at the number, the number that is burned into his memory. He’d memorized it soon after receiving the pin. It was his number, the number that meant he was really a lawyer, that he had done it.

“... yes. It is.” Phoenix looks back up. Miles is still looking at him, the odd expression still there. Not hesitance, not nervousness, not fear.

Anticipation. Miles is sitting there, watching in anticipation, as Phoenix finds his old defense attorney’s badge in Miles’ desk.

“You have my badge.” Phoenix says. He turns it back around to stare at the face. Yes, that bite mark… that was from Ema, wasn’t it?

“I do.” Miles confirms.

“Why?” Phoenix says. He weighs the small pin in his hand and then tosses it, catching it easily enough. It’s so light and small.

Miles considers both Phoenix and the pin, eyes tracking the movement of the pin as it goes up in the air again and then returns to Phoenix’s palm.

“I didn’t want anyone else to have it.” He says. He’s still anticipating something.

“I see,” Phoenix says. And… he thinks he does, “You never told me. Would’ve been a lot easier to have given it to you personally instead of having to take it off and give it to the board.” He gives Miles a half grin.

“They wouldn’t have accepted that. They’d be upset with you.”

“What would they do? Disbar me?” Phoenix jokes. Miles looks like he’s trying not to crack a smile at the joke. It’s a joke at Phoenix’s expense, but the pain of the event has been numbed by time, and the joke is made to Miles.

“I suppose there wasn’t much they could do at that point, no,” Miles agrees, “It would’ve been easier to have gotten it from you personally. I had to pull some strings to get it.”

“And you didn’t tell me.” Phoenix brings up again.

“No, I didn’t.”

“Why?”

“I thought you’d want it back.” Miles answers honestly.

Phoenix looks back down at the pin, his pin. He can see himself, six or five or even three years ago, finding out that Miles had his pin and begging the man to give it back to him. It had meant so much to him. Its absence had meant even more. It wasn’t as if he would’ve been able to do anything more with it than Miles had been doing; he’d have stuck it in a drawer, and on his worse days he would’ve pulled it out and cried over the small piece of metal.

Maybe if he’d found out a few years earlier, he would’ve been upset at Miles for not telling him, for keeping this from him. It was his badge, after all.

But now, seeing it placed in the top drawer of Miles’ desk where he could quickly open it and look at it whenever he’d wanted to, it fills Phoenix with something warm. This whole time, it hadn’t been locked away somewhere, or handed off to some rookie, or tossed away. It had been with Miles, watched over, polished, kept safe.

“Thank you.” Phoenix puts it back into the shelf, closing the drawer. The anticipation finally leaves Miles to be replaced with relief.

“It was my pleasure.” Miles smiles, and Phoenix returns it.

oOo

A lawyer doesn’t cry until it’s over.

For seven long and painful years, through even terrible twist and turn in the road, Phoenix hadn’t cried. Oh, he’d come close several times. Times where everything had started to get to him, when his chest had shaken with the sobs he so desperately wanted to let out, when he was reminded that he wasn’t a lawyer anymore, that the rule wasn’t his rule anymore. And yet the tears never came. His face stayed dry. And he’d rise again to carry on.

The packet comes in the mail ten months after the test.

It’s thick and heavy. He’s home alone, Trucy at school and Apollo doing some last-minute preparation for a trial. Sometimes it seems like the kid has better luck getting clients than Phoenix ever did.

He knows what the packet is the moment he sees it in the mail slot. He feels numb as he carries it to his apartment. He considers waiting to open it, but that seems like putting himself through unnecessary cruelty.

There’s a knife in the kitchen and he grabs it so he can cleanly slice open the top. It feels wrong to rip into it like an animal.

His shoulders shake as he slips the knife under the flap, his eyesight becomes blurry as he cleanly cuts across the top.

Win or lose, pass or fail, Phoenix thinks he knows how Godot felt at that trial. He imagines that if someone was watching him with the magatama, they’d see a final psyche-lock, placed firmly there when Phoenix had first started to close himself off for the war against Gavin, break apart.

Alone, in his apartment, for the first time in seven years, Phoenix cries.

It finally feels like it’s over.

#ace attorney #phoenix wright #fanfiction #fanfic #browniefox writes #i shall post fic here #as a treat to myself

6 notes · View notes