#Gumshoe backstory fic

[alynnl]

Part of thinking about a hypothetical Ace Attorney fan case is coming up with name puns for the victim and the suspect

[chiefyakousdilftits]

I think that I’m the only one that headcannons the Master Detectives as way older. 🤠✨🥂

I’m keeping it under the cut just to avoid discourse, you are entitled to your own opinion, and I am entitled to mine. 💕✨🥂

Yuma’s the youngest, at he just turned sixteen. Man is a gifted kid, radiates gifted kid burnout energy, and a super talented teenager isn’t really absurd given that Kodaka made Rain Code and Danganronpa, and the premise of Danganronpa is that all these teenagers are the best at what they do, so yeah, teen! Yuma. 💋

Then there’s Kurumi, at sixteen, just a little bit older than Yuma by a few months, she’s giving young and in high school, and she’s very aspirational, I’d say a good handful of teenagers have that young, excited energy and these big goals for themselves, and she’s already super passionate about being an informant, even though she hasn’t been one for very long. ✨

Then Desuhiko, at twenty - one, radiating that “ young adult that doesn’t have their shirt figured out in the slightest / child with a drinking permit “ type of vibe, like yeah, he may be an adult, but he’s not an adulty - adult, if that makes sense ? He is still prone to fucking up and needs a bit of patience still, since he’s not quite at the age where he’s figured everything out. 💅🏻

Fubuki’s next at twenty - two, she’s sheltered, but at the age where people are in college or getting their lives started, and with the inferences made by her Gumshoe Gabs and interactions, it feels like her parents pushed her to get out there, because she “ needs to learn about the real world “, which I think is a little fucked up, but that’s a story for another time. 🥂

Halara is definitely older than a lot of them by far, being thirty one, but they’re still young. They know who they are, that’s for sure, but they’re at a place where they’re established, have their shit together, but they’re not what people can consider old either. They are still at the age where they understand millennial type humor and meta jokes, but they would have to look up slang on UrbanDictionary. 👀

Vivia is thirty four, given the backstory, he’s giving me the “ my parents did a shit job raising me and my brothers but it’s kinda what they thought was best, even though it was shitty “ / latchkey kid energy, something I feel older millennials had experienced, also his interests feel mature, and it’s like he genuinely has always enjoyed stuff like reading, a hobby he could have grown up with. 💕

And when the game said Yakou’s middle aged, I would consider that like, early forties ( forty one ), because he did lots of gaming in his prequel story, and the game said that this prequel fic took place over a decade ago, which could mean anything from ten plus years, but he still had stuff like video games, so I don’t think he was much older than forty - ish. 🤠

[skeetlebeetle]

haha i hav 69 followers nice. N E WAY look. i meant 2 save this 4 after the apply fic came out (way 2 long xplanation under the cut) but im impatient n i j made all this cool art so i think u shuld see it

(DONT MAKE ME TAP THE SIGN!!! if yr gonna use my art [don’t repost] u gotta credit me!!)

so i shuld probably start w this: im rlly tired its 1:30 am n this will mostly b incoherent i think.

OK. 1 of the 1st social medias i evr got as a kid wuz wattpad. ive made n deleted so many accounts.. the memories r craz,,, n e way, its mostly behind me now but i still check back on the website sumtimez n i check my notifs or whatevz. n sum1 i followed a while back is doing an apply fic that is basically like 6 percy jackson ocs.

now heres the thing.. i dont actually rlly kno what an apply fic is. but based on the description n other oc entries in the comment section its a thing where u giv the writer yr character n then they write it into a fic. which is p cool!! n i do luv 2 make ocs.

heres the other thing: i dont hav n e percy jackson-esque ocs so i had 2 make sum. n where did my mind immediately go?? ace attorney ofc cuz thats my obsession. so i decided 2 make sum ocs based on ace attorney characters. they were gonna b reeeeeally obviously ace attorney @ 1st but i didnt want it 2 b super easy 2 figure out so i changed up their names n gave em different designs n stuff. but basically they all hav the same backstories n personalities other than all the god stuff

turns out tho that i rlly like making knock-off percy jackson/ace attorney ocs so i made em like supa separate from their original ace attorney source n now theyre j kind of their own oc guise. i rlly luv how theyre turning out actually

N E WAY all of this 2 provide context 4 me 2 say that i wanted 2 save these designs n this ace attorney xplanation bc it was kind of a silly lil harmless prank way of me being able 2 say i snuck ace attorney characters into a percy jackson-esque fanfic even tho i didnt rlly cuz, once again, these r basically my ocs now. also idk if n e of em will actually make it into the fic yet. n i didnt want the writer of the apply fic 2 stumble upon my carrd (which is, yes, linked in my wattpad) n accidentally find my tumblr n see this post n then like. idk. disqualify me. "but beetle u didnt hav 2 tell tumblr n e thing abt these ocs!!!" well sumtimez u j wanna post art dude!!

BUT WHATEVER MAN!!!! im paranoid n the writer finding my tumblr let alone reading n e of this is highly unlikely. even if they did they wuldnt fucking care. so heres sum ocs i came up w. n in case its not clear (which it probably isnt 4 at least 2 out of 4 of these designs/names), rich is gumshoe, jay is edgeworth, phoenix is phoenix (woaw), n spyridoula is maya

note that 'rich' n 'dick' r both nicknames 4 richard, jay's name is basically 'scales of justice' n also his dad died, phoenix is so lazy that his name is actually j 'phoenix,' n spyridoula is i think j named the word 4 'spirit' in greek. also shes a hippie

FINALLY: i think i got locked out of my old pinterest which was fine cuz i wasnt rlly using it n e more but 4 this apply fic i had 2 make either a moodboard or pinterest board 4 each character n y wuld i put in the effort of making a moodboard?? so heres my new pinterest which is j boards 4 these characters:

x

[madd-nix]

So, I actually spent a good amount of time on my day off today working on drawing Maya Fey: Ace Attorney for the little roleswap idea I had. And I won't post what I have just yet (cuz I wanna draw at least a few more characters' designs first), but I will explain a bit more about who is switching with who.

So, Phoenix and Maya are switching roles, with Maya being the defense attorney and Phoenix being the co-counsel. Maya will still be a spirit medium (as will all the Fey women), so what does Phoenix do? He's a freelance artist. He does illustration, paintings, and after meeting Maya and working more with the court, he'll do more with court drawings, crime scene drawings, and he'll draw anything else that could help in a case.

Next, Miles and Franziska are swapped, making Franziska the first prosecutor Maya faces, and Miles is the second. Yes, this will definitely have Franmaya in it plus Wrightworth. Now, I'm still planning things out with their backstories and how the DL-6 case plays out, but Gregory Edgeworth will never be the bad guy here. I still plan on him tragically getting murdered, but that whole situation will play out differently, especially the aftermath of Gregory's murder.

Now, as for some other characters..... I'm still very much in the planning part trying to figure out how certain events could lead up to certain characters taking on their new roles and how certain cases will play out, but I'm too excited to keep quiet on the swaps.

Mia will be swapped with Larry. Larry is Maya's mentor in lawyering and he is also still friends with Phoenix. Mia is still Maya's older sister, and she's not as goofy as canon Larry, but she will be different from her canon self and she will be accused of murder for Maya's first case.

Gumshoe and Godot/Diego Armando will also be swapped. Diego is the detective for homicide cases that will be working with Franziska, and Gumshoe is the defense attorney turned angsty prosecutor. Again, still working on details (especially with the Fey family and Dahlia and Iris' story), but I have already come up with a new prosecutor name for Gumshoe that I'll be keeping secret for now.

And I'm thinking about making Pearl and Trucy swap roles as well, but again, backstories and plot points are difficult to switch around sometimes. But I'm working on it!

Now, will this be a fic or just an assortment of drawings and text posts? I don't know. We'll see how my motivation goes and how much free time I have in between work days. But I'm real into this au so far! And feel free to leave ideas or thoughts on this au, since any feedback is appreciated!

[synnefo-nefeli]

ABO Narumitsu?

Yeeee I was waiting for someone to request them!! I am using my AA ABO fic, Strange Days , Canon without giving away Miles’ backstory :

Phoenix is an Alpha born to Beta parents. He’s a middle-weight Alpha meaning that he is from a diverse gene pool and his children have a high chance of being middle weights or higher. Middleweights are looked down upon because they’re the product of “lower class” breeding. Meaning that Phoenix’s Alpha ancestors mated with Betas or middle or light-weight Omegas, rather than heavy or pedigree Omegas. While middleweights are good for genetic diversity, they are considered lower-class on the weight-spectrum. Many aristocratic Alphas or Omegas would rather have their heirs mate an upperclass light-weight than a middleweight....and then they wonder why Alphas and Omegas are becoming increasingly scarce.

Miles is a light-weight Omega... which is common for most omega males. He unfortunately was raised to think he was a latent Alpha (an Alpha who never actually popped a knot/had a rut) by the Alpha-obsessive Von Karma. Von Karma told Miles his lacking as an Alpha was due to him having weak breeding (“your sire was a defense attorney need I say more?”), but according to VK, Miles was shrewd, clever enough, and VK’s perfect protégée “so of course you’re an Alpha”.

Needless to say, Miles had a lot of internalized hatred towards omegas and he had to unlearn A LOT when the truth came out of his actual designation. Because he’s a light-weight it was easy for VK to supply him with highly potent suppressants (some that were not on the market), psychological persuasion, and other means to the point where Miles’ true designation was kept hidden from even himself.

After the events of AA1-4, Miles begins researching his family history. His father’s house was an old Omega clan

After the events of AA1-5 between the shock of the trial and him having his first heat due to him detoxing from the suppressants for 5 months- Miles “chooses death” due to being disillusioned by the courts and him finding out he’s actually an omega

Miles’s nest at home looks like his office at work. If he has a bad heat he’ll just curl up in his and Phoenix’s bed

Even though he has threatened to burn The Hoodie™️, he likes to wear it during his heat.

While he was courting Phoenix and while they were engaged Lang proved to be an obstacle...in that he didn’t understand why Miles was settling for a middleweight when “a pedigree Alpha would be better for you”. Miles is also able to deflect Lang’s Alpha tone and doesn’t act like a normal and submissive omega, much to Lang’s dissatisfaction which only intrigues Lang all the more about Miles.

Gumshoe always brings Miles snacks when Miles gets lethargic around mating season; Gumshoe, despite being a beta, has an omega wife and sisters so he’s really considerate.

Miles is the breadwinner which is pretty odd in most A/O setups. Phoenix didn’t mind being “a kept Alpha” during his disbarment, even if it wasn’t really the case- he just dressed like a slob to throw off Kristoph and in Miles’ words “annoy him”

Maya officiated Phoenix and Miles’ mating ceremony which happens after AA3-2 (strange days bends time with AAi so he meets Lang while engaged to Phoenix)

Miles being the Chief Prosecutor is a huge thing as few Omegas are prosecutors to begin with and Miles is the first to hold the position.

[dead-inside-mcgee]

Larry Butz: Bi Attorney

*throws this dumb au at you* Have the only no dl-6 au that doesn't revolve around Miles

Larry is a prosecutor. Why? To impress a girl of course- a girl that's definitely Dahlia Hawthorne (I'll get to it)

She's reading a magazine that as Miles Edgeworth, a defense attorney, on the front. He claims to know him and when she doesn't believe him, he decides to go to law school to meet up with him

Even after she disappears, something about a murder?, it's not like he can just quit law school. He worked hard for this

So he becomes a prosecutor. And eventually he goes up against Miles in the Maya Fey trial

Meanwhile Phoenix runs a bakery because I have PLvsPW brain rot (insert obligatory background narumitsu)

The trial is interesting

Larry: Holy shit is that you Miles?

Miles: Oh god- I'm sorry Ms. Fey I can no longer take your case. I have to jump out a third story window

---

Miles: You're wrong detective, Ms. Fey is the only one who couldn't have written that note. According to the autopsy report, she died instantly.

Larry: Oh! Oh oh oh oh! Woah! Wait!

(paper shuffling)

Larry: On my report it says almost instantly! So she could have! Take that smartass!

Larry also does art on the side. His office is pretty much an art studio

Miles orders a Steel Samurai commission from him without realizing

Miles: Thank you. Tell anyone and I'll kill you.

Larry: Sure man. Artist-commissioner confidentiality. That'll be 40$

Miles: The painting or the confidentiality?

Larry is also himbo4himbo for Gumshoe

Gumshoe: Here's that report you needed! I made sure there's plenty of pictures, sir!

Larry: Gee thinks. Hehe...

Larry ten minutes later: Phoenix you gave me the gay!

I have some dark backstory I made for Larry but you'll have to wait for me to get around to writing the fic, or for me to cave and make another post

[rivalsforlife]

Different anon, but I for one enjoy reading 2k rants on Ace Attorney. Do you have any thoughts on the changes they made to AA4 Phoenix? Like do you think it worked? (also if these are getting annoying feel free to ignore)

Glad to hear I’m not completely annoying everyone for constantly dunking on AA!!!

AA4 Phoenix... I’ve got to admit that the first time I went through AA4 I did not exactly like him. But I feel like there’s a LOT of potential there that would have been great to explore in laTER GAMES -- ahem. Well, I did just play the first case of AA4 yesterday with my best friend, and honestly, Phoenix is an absolute delight. My perceptions of characters tend to change upon further playthroughs and reading meta/content on the characters (Iris and Pearl being others who I really started liking later that I didn’t like at first)!

Firstly, I think making Phoenix a dad was a great move, the man already had some good dad-vibes going with Pearl in the trilogy so making it official was good. I also enjoy how they made Phoenix a dad in a way that didn’t feel... off? Like, giving Phoenix an official love interest and him having a biological child would kind of feel weird. But Phoenix has kind of been accumulating children/teenagers that like to follow him around for a while, and having Trucy actually stick around and make it official is really sweet, and their relationship and dynamics are such a great part of the fourth game. It’s done in a way where at first I was like “wait what do you MEAN Phoenix has a child???” but upon learning how he came to adopt her, I thought it made a lot of sense, it fit so well with the Phoenix we’ve come to know over the past few games.

Also one of his first lines is just a dad joke (”I-I’m fine!” “Mr. Fine, was it?”) which made me laugh a lot when playing it yesterday.

It’s also good to see him be a little mean, and show just how much of a genius he’s really capable of being. He’s always had that snarky streak throughout the trilogy and having him actually speak it out loud is great. And he’s also always been a genius, even if people around him don’t acknowledge it, and seeing him take a leaf out of Mia’s book and be the Cryptic Slightly Ominous Mentor is an interesting development for him. Like, it’s been seven years, I can believe Phoenix went through a lot of growth in those seven years.

(I do feel like a lot of the hate AA4 Phoenix gets tends to be from people who projected too much onto Phoenix as the protagonist in the trilogy -- which makes sense since he was originally kind of just intended to be a blank slate protagonist. ... Which I might’ve bought if they didn’t give him the elaborate backstories about becoming a lawyer to save Miles and the Dahlia backstory. Anyways, point is, I don’t really ever see myself in characters because I have a very loose sense of self to begin with, so I never really had that issue...?)

The things I DON’T like about AA4 Phoenix... first, it does kind of sting that two months after his Great Big Finale where he’s finally come into his own as a lawyer, he gets disbarred, and that isn’t resolved for seven years. Seven years is a long time! But I can live with that. There’s also the fact that AA4 rarely brings up any of Phoenix’s friends -- which in the one hand I get, because it’s Apollo’s game, not Phoenix’s -- and it’s odd. I know that Investigations was written after AA4 and is not by Takumi, so he didn’t really have any say in this, but even BEFORE Investigations I can’t believe that Miles would presumably abandon Phoenix over the gap. Particularly not after the ending of the second investigations game. Maya, too. She gets a few offhand mentions, sure, but even in the flashback there isn’t any mention of Phoenix having any contact with Maya, Miles, even Gumshoe... Ema mentions she didn’t even know Phoenix had a daughter, implying they weren’t really in contact either... and of course when only Maya gets a mention about Steel Samurai stuff in the fourth game, it feels like all his friends completely abandoned him. Which is why there are so many older fics written before DD was released where Phoenix was completely alone over the seven-year-gap. And while of course having the characters make an in-person appearance wouldn’t make any sense, having maybe a few random dialogue lines mentioning Phoenix was still in contact with them and they were still close would have been nice. DD and SOJ kind of fix this, but... still.

The other issue is that he kind of ends up overshadowing Apollo’s story particularly in the final case. He is the one who connects everything, and sets everything up, pretty much just using Apollo as a puppet to take down Kristoph since he can’t. Also since the whole story is about Phoenix and uncovering his past, Apollo’s own choices have much less weight. This, again, is something that could be resolved in the sequels by having Apollo have a larger role and not be overshadowed by Phoenix. Haha. hahahahaha. imagine that.

Overall I think Takumi had the right idea making Phoenix not be the protagonist since his story was done with T&T, and it’s interesting to see his growth throughout the years. I don’t necessarily think the disbarment itself was necessary -- Phoenix could still be the ominous cryptic and slightly meaner mentor/dad with his badge, and not in the spotlight, which is what I think DD and SOJ should have done after giving him his badge back. Would have liked it if it wasn’t so easy to walk away from the game with the impression that all of Phoenix’s beloved friends cut contact with him, though. 

[iturbide]

@cianidix​ replied to your post:

The more you talk about this, the more I want to read it! Edgeworth-centric and also more Edgeworth-Maya interactions, ahhhhh. I’m also sooo interested in reading about how the relationship falls apart and how they (hopefully, maybe, I don’t believe Feenie is actually dead here… right??? Q_Q) eventually make better or move on and just- ahhhh I wish this fic was here already (if you get back to it)

(Trucy still exists, right? Even tho Wright wasn’t disbarred, right???)

Of course Trucy still exists I could never write her out of existence she’s too precious of a child to not be around in some way shape or form (and there’s nothing to say that Nick won’t end up with her at some point in the future, anyway -- he could always use another kid or two, and I think we all know it).  Interestingly enough, though, one of my other big works was an AA4-compliant piece, also Edgeworth-centric, that involved a lot of Edgeworth-Trucy interactions because Trucy’s a part of Phoenix’s life now, and if he wants to have any part in it himself Edgeworth has to get along with the adopted daughter.  It actually had a decent chunk of words in it, too (around 12k -- it’s the second excerpt from the link in the last post).

But in all honesty people getting excited about my stories gets me excited about those stories and since I still don’t know when I’m going to get around to writing the whole thing out, what’s the harm in dropping the summary? 

Gonna give this another shot and Tumblr’s not gonna eat it this time mark my words

A couple notes before we get into things:

OCs are fair game in Ace Attorney as far as I’m concerned, and we’re certainly going to have a host of them.  From the prosecutor on the case to all of those involved, I’ll be making a whole cast and crew to back this story up, and if I can manage it there will be absolutely terrible puns, because that just seems to be how AA games operate.

Lana Skye is hands down one of my absolute favorite characters in the series, and it’s a crime that they only put her into one bonus case and put her in prison at the end of it.  For all of my continuities, I completely write out SL-9 as a case: Joe Darke never escaped his cell, Lana got into the prosecutor’s office and became chief by virtue of her own talents, and both the prosecutor’s office and the police department have cowboys running around.

I have a fairly non-standard view of Phoenix as a person, just based on everything I remember seeing in fandom back when I was more active.  For instance: I love the fact that he was an art student, but I’ve always specifically thought he was aiming to be an actor and had a thing for Shakespeare; frankly, the ad libbing that has to go into acting when something goes wrong explains so much for me where Nick’s bluffing is concerned (when a man interrogates a parrot, you know he has a weird history).  Unrelated but still relevant to that point, I think he’s actually a decent pianist and took lessons through most of his childhood and adolescence -- but he’s a classical pianist by training and not great at playing by ear, so people just think he sucks because he botches any modern tunes.  So if you see something that seems Weird compared to fandom’s general take, just know that it probably has backstory.

So with all that in mind, let’s dive in.

In true Ace Attorney fashion, the whole thing starts with a cold open.  As he finishes up the last of the paperwork associated with the case he wrapped up that afternoon, Phoenix gets a call from a familiar number, and though he dreads the conversation to come he answers anyway, refusing an offer to meet and saying that he can’t do this anymore before someone enters the inner office.  He insists that they’re closed as he turns toward the door, and a voice replies that this won’t take long -- and then there’s gunshots.  And then nothing. 

The next morning, Maya is understandably shocked and horrified to arrive at the office and find that it’s once again a crime scene: bullet holes in the windows, blood on the floor, police everywhere...but no sign of Nick.  Gumshoe is on the scene, though, and after a lot of badgering, he reveals that there’s been no sign of Phoenix, but the police are operating under the assumption that he’s dead -- and they’ve already arrested a suspect.  Maya can’t imagine who would want to hurt Phoenix, and hearing that it’s Miles Edgeworth they’ve imprisoned just makes the whole thing feel that much more surreal.  Sure, Nick and Edgeworth have had their disagreements --- including one the day before, in the recesses of their trial, and Phoenix had seemed really upset after that -- but she didn’t think it was something worth killing over. 

But she’s still hurt, and reeling from the morning’s news.  So her first order of business is to march down to the Detention Center to confront him.  Edgeworth is...not surprised to see her, given the circumstances -- but when she demands to know why he did it, he insists that he’s innocent: he would never harm Wright, no matter the circumstances.  As much as Maya wants to believe that, though, the fact that he doesn’t seem upset by Nick’s supposed death so much as the accusation that he had a hand in it rubs her wrong, and despite herself she can’t help but wonder if he did have some role in it; regardless, she still goes everywhere she can think of in hopes that there was a mistake, that Nick is okay after all, collecting evidence with every stop...but as it gets later, when there’s still no sign of him, she and Pearl return to the Detention Center.  

With no defense counsel, Edgeworth is almost guaranteed to go to prison...but at Pearl’s urging, Maya steps up and offers to defend him, since she recently passed the bar and got her badge.  She spends the rest of the evening doing her best to cobble together a case based on what little information she has, and reports to the courthouse the next morning for her very first trial as a defense attorney. 

Her first case, and Nick isn’t even there to see it.  She didn’t think it could hurt any worse. 

Before they’re called into the courtroom, the defense gets a surprise visitor: chief prosecutor Lana Skye, come to deliver case notes and evidence files.  Maya barely gets time enough to leaf through them before they’re called into the courtroom to start the trial, where she finds herself facing the rising star from the prosecutor’s office: Gayle Huntington, a young woman who counts Chief Prosecutor Skye as her inspiration and who is excited to add another guilty verdict to her record, in spite of (or perhaps because of) the fact that one of her fellow prosecutors stands accused. 

The prosecution declares it a crime of passion, and presents their theory of the case: following a heated confrontation outside the courtroom, Miles Edgeworth called Phoenix Wright to arrange a meeting.  While he may have intended only to put an end to the argument, tempers flared, and in a fit of rage the defendant shot the victim three times before dragging the body down to the street and driving it off to be disposed of at another location.  Their evidence includes the blood found at the scene, which matches Phoenix based on forensic testing; three bullet holes in the office window, though no slugs or casings were found at or around the office despite an extensive search with metal detectors; Edgeworth’s phone, which shows that the last call before he contacted 911 was made to Wright’s number; and a handgun found at the scene which shows evidence of recent firing, though no magazine was found in it. 

Over the first day of testimony, Maya manages to shred the prosecution’s case based on that chain of events:

The gun, as it happens, belonged to Phoenix himself.  One of the documents the chief prosecutor provided to the defense was a photocopy of a sign-in sheet for a local gun range, which not only has Nick’s signature on it, but included a copy of his firearm registration and permit, which was for the exact make, model, and serial number as the purported murder weapon.  Lana Skye herself is called to the stand, as her name also appears on the sign-in, and she testifies that after court the previous day she happened across Wright at the range and they talked a bit; he said that he needed to blow off a bit of steam before going back to his paperwork, and she clearly recalls that he did not clean his weapon before leaving, instead saying that he would do so after he went home since his cleaning kit was there.  On closer examination, it's discovered that while the weapon has mostly been wiped clean, the trigger was not, and a partial print matching Phoenix is recovered.

On calling Edgeworth himself to the stand, he admits that he did contact Phoenix late in the evening in the hopes of resolving the argument from that afternoon; however, he was across townpicking up his car from the repair shop when he made that call, and when he heard what sounded like a shot before the call cut out he immediately drove to the office where he found the blood trail leading to the curb.  Cell tower records do, in fact, confirm that he was far from the defense attorney’s office when the call was made, and based on the time of his calls to both Phoenix and 911, there was far too narrow of a window to dispose of the body. 

The next revelation comes with the filing of a new piece of evidence, courtesy of a frantic Gumshoe bursting into court and taking the stand.  The police, in their search of likely dumping grounds for a body, dredged something out of the river that seems to confirm that they have a murder on their hands: a blue suit coat with three apparent bullet holes in the back...and Phoenix’s badge still affixed to the lapel.  What little blood evidence they were able to collect matches Phoenix, as well. 

For all that this is a stunning (and devastating) revelation, it brings with it yet more to undermine the prosecution’s case: namely the bullet evidence.  When placed on a mannequin, even coupled with the knowledge that Phoenix left his suit jacket unbuttoned while working in the office, the placement of the bullet holes in the back would require that there be associated entry points in the front -- which do not exist.  Maya draws the logical conclusion, then, that the shots must have been fired from outside the office -- through the window, and the reason no slugs or casings were found was because the shots weren’t fired from inside the office, and the bullets were still in the victim. 

Despite the upset in court, the prosecution refuses to budge, and the Judge refuses to declare a Not Guilty verdict.  Court adjourns for the day instead, and Maya heads out to continue her investigation.  Making her way to the Gatewater Hotel, she manages to get information on who was staying in the room across from the office: four members of a jazz band in town for a show, who insist that they’re the only ones who have been in the room and that they were setting up for a performance on the night of the crime.  Though she doesn’t know them herself, she hears vague rumors that they have a fifth member who’s been in some ‘legal trouble.’  When Maya relates the name to Edgeworth, he remarks that it seems somehow familiar, though he can’t quite place why.  She also gets the prosecutor’s repair records and goes to check out the rental company he used while his car was in the shop, which nets her a copy of the damage and condition checklist the agent filled out when Edgeworth brought the car back.

While Maya has the case to occupy her mind, Miles has no such means of escaping his own thoughts in his prison cell.  Between the confirmation that the jacket does, in fact, belong to Phoenix (something he had tried to deny at first, hoping that the coat was a look-alike and the badge stolen, only to have that possibility dashed by the presence of Wright’s initials on the underside of the tag) and the relative isolation in the detention center, he’s had ample time to think over how things had been with Phoenix -- including how he, himself, had been with the defense attorney...and he’s forced to face some very hard truths about his behavior toward someone he cares about far more than he wanted to believe.  

With the start of the second day in court, the prosecution has changed its theory of the crime, but not its perpetrator: rather than committing the crime alone, Edgeworth had an accomplice, and his call to Wright was a ploy to get him into firing range while the shooter waited in the hotel for his chance.   Leaving his rental car in front of the defense attorney’s office, he picked up his usual vehicle and upon arriving at the crime scene helped his accomplice load the body into the getaway car for disposal while he made a call to police.  Their evidence comes from photos of the rental vehicle in question, which show damage not reported on the return checklist, as well as blood evidence taken from the trunk which matches Phoenix. 

Once again, Maya tears through the prosecution’s case piece by piece:

The damage in the evidence photos compared to the rental return form make for the first order of business.  On calling the man who signed off on Edgeworth’s car to the stand -- an amiable but nervous young Latine by the name of Novi Nada -- they swear up and down that the damage in the photos absolutely was not present when they checked the car in on the night of the crime.  (In true Ace Attorney form, this gets somewhat ridiculous, as this witness lapses into Spanish when especially nervous; when pressed, they insist “no vi nada” -- I didn’t see anything -- to which the Judge responds “yes we know your name now what did you see?”)

Sensor data from the rental lot finally confirms the agent’s version of events, where the car is registered as driving onto the lot shortly before the time marked on the inspection form; more importantly, it also recorded the car being driven off the lot and then back on much later.  Unfortunately, there is no additional inspection form, nor a record of who rented the car after Edgeworth, and therefore no record of who might have been involved. 

Edgeworth is recalled to the stand to revisit his testimony, and he adds another key detail: while it was a sound that he took to be gunfire that sent him to the defense attorney’s office, Wright had said something strange during the call, mentioning that the office was closed -- as though he was speaking to someone else that had just arrived moments before the shots sounded and the call cut out. 

Neither the defense’s office complex nor the Gatewater Hotel have video surveillance of the street; however, the Gatewater does take video of the lobby, which shows one of the four band members leaving around an hour before the crime occurred, two more leaving minutes before the shooting, and the last rushing through the lobby with a trombone case under his arm; notably, he’s the only one of the four to actually take his instrument when he left, as the others were all empty-handed.  Most importantly, though, the video proves that no one else left the hotel between the time of the shooting and the time that the police started arriving, which calls into question the notion of an accomplice helping Miles dispose of the body.

This, however, provides the prosecution with a shiny new theory: that Miles hired the band to act as hitmen while he kept his hands clean.  As it turns out, the reason the band name seemed familiar to him was because he was set to prosecute the fifth member of their group after his case against Phoenix wrapped up; the prosecutor posits that Miles promised to go easy on their incarcerated bandmate if they took out the defense attorney. 

This is a damning accusation, and Maya has no ready response.  The Judge adjourns the court for the day, and the defense scrambles to come up with a way to prove that Edgeworth had no part in what happened and place the blame on the truly guilty.  She returns to the rental company and, while interviewing Novi further, finds out that the fifth bandmate has a sibling that works at the same agency.  She also returns to the Gatewater to speak with the band, and notices that the trombone case in the room doesn’t look like the one from the lobby video.  When asked, they say that the old case got lost...which seems odd to her, since the trombone itself is still there and doesn’t appear damaged. 

While Maya looks deeper into the band, she reaches out to Miles for insight into the case he was supposed to prosecute.  The fifth band member had been taken into custody on suspicion of murder, and while he suspected that the man did not commit the crime alone, he hadn’t yet been able to prove that when all this happened.  For the first time, though, Maya starts to see real anger in the prosecutor -- not because these people dragged his good name through the mud with this set-up, but apparently because Phoenix’s blood is on their hands, and he can’t abide the thought of them getting away.  He readily gives her access to his office for the other case file (which Chief Prosecutor Skye secures for her) so that she can use it in establishing her own case.

Despite her best efforts, though, Maya simply can’t pull together enough solid evidence to prove that Miles didn’t have a hand in the crime -- and without proof of his innocence, the court intends to find him guilty.  But before the judge can hand down his verdict, the courtroom doors open, and a strident Objection! rises from the back of the room...and who should come limping up to the witness stand but Phoenix Wright himself. 

The courtroom goes absolutely wild about this. 

Understandably, the judge calls for a recess, and before the prosecution can drag him off to prep him for testimony Maya and Edgeworth at least get a minute with him.  As it turns out, Maya had forgotten her phone that morning, and Pearl grabbed it for her; just as they were called into court, though, it rang, and Pearl stayed behind to answer -- only to be shocked to hear Mister Nick’s voice on the other end, at which point she rushed off to beg Mister Scruffy Detective to take her to get the defense attorney from the hospital where he’d been for the past few days as a ‘John Doe’ (since he had no ID on him when he was brought in).  Maya is overwhelmed to see him alive, if worse for the wear, and Edgeworth…

...he can’t even find words for the feeling. 

The celebration is shortlived, though, as Phoenix is dragged off to the witness lobby in short order to prep him for testimony.  For all that the prosecution seems to believe he’ll help them, though, Nick gives them absolutely nothing, and instead confirms that he received a call from Edgeworth that evening, and while they were on the phone two strangers came into the office just before he was shot.  They dragged him down to the street and threw him in the trunk of a car, then drove to the river and threw him in; most importantly, though, he remembers one of them asking what to do with the case, and another saying they would dump it at the club where it would blend right in; police are immediately dispatched there and find a bloody trombone case (since they’d thrown it into the trunk before loading Nick in) with a rifle inside.  

The motive?  Everyone knows the Demon Prosecutor’s reputation, and they knew that they’d all go down if he tried the case on their buddy.  The enmity between prosecutors and defense attorneys is well known, though, and in particular they knew that Wright had broken Edgeworth’s old record and it had never recovered; they figured it would be easy to frame him for the murder with the right set-up.  They had a small window of opportunity while Wright and Edgeworth worked through their trial, and they used it to put all their pieces in place, expecting that Edgeworth would go down and they’d all get off when a less competent prosecutor inevitably got their friend’s case.  Clearly, though, that backfired on them: they’re all taken away, and Edgeworth is declared Not Guilty.  Cue fanfare and confetti!

...and that’s where the fallout begins. 

While Miles is taken to get things squared away with his release from detention, Phoenix is taken back to the hospital because honestly he should not have left in the first place.  The man was admitted with a collapsed lung.  It’s frankly a wonder he even managed to stand, let alone raise that objection.  His recovery takes a while, and Maya and Pearl are frequent visitors...but so is Miles, much to his surprise.  Only it’s not a good surprise for him, given what he’d been planning to say on the night he got shot.  Things feel awkward, and all the more for how Miles is acting...different.  Not like his usual self.  Phoenix doesn’t know what it is or if he likes it, but he’s too tired to complain since it’s not bothering him, and visiting hours are relatively short since the prosecutor is still working cases. 

Given what happened to him, though, the doctor recommends that Phoenix should stay with someone once he’s discharged: his condition, while improved, could deteriorate rapidly if something happens, so it’s imperative to have someone else around in case of an emergency.  Maya and Pearl are still going back and forth between the city and Kurain semi-frequently, though, and he wouldn’t want to impose on them, especially since Pearls has been thinking about attending school in the city rather than just getting her medium training...but though he doesn’t even consider Edgeworth as a possibility, the prosecutor immediately volunteers when he hears: he has more than enough vacation time accrued and the chief prosecutor hounds him regularly about needing to take some, so he can be on hand for whatever Wright might need. 

This does not, in fact, reassure Phoenix. 

It’s okay enough at first, if only because Nick is just too tired and hurts too much to think about it or care about much beyond finding a comfortable position to sleep in and figuring out how to breathe without it making his chest feel like it’s full of broken glass.  But as he starts improving, the tension slowly ratchets up, because Phoenix still doesn’t understand why Miles volunteered for this and the only possible explanations he can think of aren’t really good (most involve having him in the prosecutor’s debt, which is not what he wants).  Miles, meanwhile, isn’t aware of this tension at first...but gradually he becomes more and more aware of the silence around Phoenix.  It was understandable at first, because he was fresh out of the hospital and still recovering, but the longer it goes on the more noticeable it becomes, and he knows it means something but he doesn’t know what to do about it. 

Eventually, though, it all does come out, because Miles finally broaches the subject of his own accord by asking Phoenix what he’d been planning to say that night: he’d said he can’t do “this” anymore, but he never said what “this” is.  And even though he’s aware that nothing is likely to cme of it, Phoenix explains exactly what his problem is and has been for so long: the one-sided relationship where he’s the one doing all the work and making all the concessions and getting none of his own needs met in return.  It’s exhausting, and he can’t do it anymore.  And rather than fighting or arguing the point, Miles -- who has never had a relationship like this before -- asks what needs Phoenix has, and how can he meet them.  He concedes the point, he admits that he’s been in the wrong and needs to change, and asks for help figuring out where to start -- because he came so close this time to losing Phoenix permanently, and that realization scares him more than he can say. 

Phoenix is pretty well dumbstruck.  But he recognizes, too, that this isn’t easy for Miles.  He’s reaching out, he’s trying...and even though Nick had intended to cut his losses that night in his office before everything went so wrong, he decides to give this one last shot. 

And when Miles listens to what he says, and actively responds and adjusts...he can’t help hoping that this turnabout will end up well.

[leafyemeralds]

For the Fanfiction ask: 6, 20, 23, 51 >:3

6. List your OTP from each fandom you’ve been involved in. WHOO BOY Percabeth - PJO Harry/Hermione - HP (Yes I was that bitch in high school) Naegami - DanganRonpa  Tododeku - BNHA  Narumitsu - AA 20. Any ships which you surprised yourself by liking? I am pretty sure Lang/Gumshoe takes this prize. I literally never considered it before and now it’s my personal headcanon. I wonder who I have to thank for that... 23. Name a fic you’ve written that you’re especially fond of & explain why you like it. Okay, this one has to be Everything is (Not) Okay. This one is my favorite mainly because I enjoy exploring Klavier’s character and my backstory for him and this gives me the perfect opportunity to do so. Also, eventually, I get to work on his relationship with Apollo, which will be exciting. Also writing Kristoph and Klavier as kids is my favorite thing in the world and I will ALWAYS be happy to do that.  51. Rant or Gush about one thing you love or hate in the world of fanfiction! I really dislike disbarment fics that minimize Kristoph’s involvement in it and his “friendship” with Phoenix because I believe that was a very important part of Phoenix’s arc and that his interactions with Kristoph were what lead to his behavior in AJ. Also, there is a lot of untapped potential in those interactions and to brush it off is just annoying to me. I say this while never planning on writing a disbarment fic myself. xD

[alynnl]

My Take on Gumshoe's Backstory

I played through the Ace Attorney trilogy as well as the Investigations duology, and noticed a blank spot in a lot of characters' back stories. Since he's important to Edgeworth and I love him plenty on his own, I'll be focusing on Detective Dick Gumshoe and what his past might have been like. Part of this (but probably not all of it) will end up in a fanfic I've been taking notes for here and there.

In the beginning, Gumshoe lived in his family home with his parents and two younger siblings (one brother, one sister.)

His mom and dad owned a convenience store. (In the present day, it's run by his younger sister and her husband.) Overall the family isn't the richest one on the block, but they're happy to share a home together.

Gumshoe was an energetic child who got along easy with others. He became close with an older family friend, Jay Walker - an auto mechanic who seemed like he could fix anything.

Gumshoe's love of gadgets comes from his Uncle Jay, who was always working on something in his garage at any given moment. It was not unusual for the two of them to spend their evenings tinkering with various tools and electronics.

Jay made the offhanded remark that Gumshoe knew his way around a toolbox, and he'd make a great apprentice. This was something the boy took to heart, making him want to sign up for shop classes once he got into middle school.

When he was twelve years old, Gumshoe became involved in a murder case that would later be known as the YB-5 Incident. It began when he was walking home after a night at the arcade with a couple of his classmates. He stepped onto his block just in time to witness a drive-by shooting. He hid as the car sped further down the street.

Gumshoe went to check on the victim, realizing to his horror that it was his Uncle Jay who had just been shot. By the time the paramedics arrived, it was too late. It was later said that Jay died instantly.

The following week, the police and the investigating prosecutor swept Gumshoe's neighborhood from top to bottom, questioning everyone as to what they saw and heard that Friday night.

The lead prosecutor on the case was Manfred von Karma. He informed Gumshoe's family that the boy would have to testify in court as a witness if they are to give their neighbor's murderer the guilty verdict he deserves.

During the investigation, it's revealed that Jay used to be "Detective Walker," and he was trying to live a peaceful life after retirement. But a criminal from one of his previous cases decided to take their revenge on the night of the YB-5 Incident, since the former detective broke up his gang of weapon smugglers.

The investigation wrapped up, and the trial began. Von Karma emphasized how important it is that Gumshoe give the perfect witness statement, and didn't care much about the boy's feelings or grief he might be experiencing for his family friend.

Gumshoe gives his statement. Even after that, the trial dragged on for months and he isn't given any sense of closure. A verdict is reached merely one day before Jay Walker's funeral was planned to take place.

Gumshoe is left with an emptiness inside even after the guilty verdict. He doesn't feel like this was a victory because the verdict doesn't bring back his friend and mentor.

Then patrolman Tyrell Badd gives the boy some encouragement, saying how he was brave to give his statement on the witness stand. "I've seen grown men break down and cry when they were giving their testimony, but you didn't shed a tear. You have courage, kid. I think old Jay would be proud."

Tyrell's words gave Gumshoe a different idea of who he wanted to be when he grew up. He wanted to protect people, and be there for the survivors left behind just like him. From then on, he had his sights set on joining the police academy, but never gave up the hobby of tinkering with machines in his spare time.

[alynnl]

I've been sitting on a few rambles about Ace Attorney but I haven't had the time and/or attention span to type them out fully:

My thoughts about how Miles Edgeworth is so protective of Franziska von Karma, despite their complicated relationship and how heartwarming that is

How Phoenix Wright did the hardest job in the world cross examining Edgeworth in Turnabout Goodbyes and Maya in Bridge to the Turnabout - two times he had to question his closest friends on painful subjects to find the truth and give them closure

A list of family arrangement head canons for most of the recurring cast of the AA trilogy

Related to the above, my entire take on Gumshoe's backstory (most of which will end up in my upcoming fic)

The notes for my role reversal AU (also known as the Indictment AU) where Edgeworth takes the prosecution side against someone who hurt Phoenix as repayment for his friend defending him in Turnabout Goodbyes

I'm not sure when I'll elaborate on these points since my current fic has taken a front seat. But I wanted to share the bite sized versions for now just to get them out of my head.