and by "place" I mean art blog. my ao3 is radstarmuffin and my main blog is over at randomstarmuffin (and is a mess with no stucture you've been warned). in this house I'm just catering to my own specific niche tastes and having a good time doing it :)
Base by @dalgyu_777 who has since deleted their twitter and deviantart. If they have new accounts anywhere else, I unfortunately couldn't find them. This base just screamed Hiyoko and Ryouta to me, I love it! Many thanks for defeating my art block <3
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And finally some alt versions I liked just for funâ
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Special thanks to Ben @jellojellojello â you were a delightful guide, you gave away nothing, and your French accent puts mine to shame (even if the actual French would guillotine us both). Most of all thank you for initiating me to the wonderful world of Being Insane âRound Birds. Dear reader, you, too, can BIRB with the best of us with the use of this one special trick! (Play a beloved indie visual novel and be so, so Normal about it.)
I've been informed a lot of people like to draw Hiyoko blonde, but I'm a brunette, brunette-loving bitch to my core hahaha. I do enjoy the some-variation-of-bob-ish hair most people seem to give her, so I decided to go with that part! And I gave her a matching hairpin to Human Ryouta's tie pin because I'm sentimental like that sue me. I love these two so much.
I wrote something in 2nd person POV! That was a lot of fun, even if it was kind of an accidental experiment rather than intentional experimental prose. I also tried writing from a dialogue prompt for the first time! I think sometimes I struggle with being a little precious about my writing and perhaps especially my dialogue, so I think it was good exercise to let that go a little and work from a pre-written starting point!
4. What piece of media inspired you the most?
tl;dr: I'm going with Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma. Fuller, verbose answer:
This is such a funny question actually, just because of the year I had last year specifically hahaha. Based on the way I couldn't shut up about it to literally everyone I know and was consumed by it entirely from like August-October, I think there's an argument to be made that it was ABC's 9-1-1.
HOWEVER. I'm going to make the counter argument that I only even watched (and convinced, like, 4 other friends to also watch lol) the show in the first place because of how inspired / brain-worm-infested I was by ZTD. (Arguably also very funny bc for as much as I love both I don't know that Either is particularly super well-written, hahaha.) (If anyone's curious yeah all it took was that Carlos ZTD is an american firefighter and I was like wouldn't it be funny if I watched the firefighter show because of him and then I did and got kind of obsessed lmao.)
I'd played it for the first time back in 2020 with some friends which was an extremely fun and chaotic experience, but it's such a bonkers and overall kind of unsatisfying end to the Zero Escape trilogy (imo) that I can't stay it really stuck with me quite the same at the time (other than the pod fucking. one can never forget the pod fucking). Thusly, I was completely unprepared for how deeply it Gripped me when I experienced it the second time through watching lucahjin's blind playthrough on YouTube. And considering I only just realized I've been kind of drawing inspo from ZTD specifically in creating my massive 2-years-in-the-making Ace Attorney AU while responding to another ask literally 15 minutes ago, I'm going to go ahead and say that bolsters my argument that ZTD was my top inspo last year!
Someday!! I will hunker down and put my too-long ZE masterfic idea to paper! I kind of want to focus on AA for 2026 in honor of Apollo Justice bc catching up to the game timeline amuses me, so maybe my goal will be to have it ready for New Year's 2029 in honor of ZTD in the same way!
teehee okay obv you dont have to answer both if you dont want to but im asking this account too yes:
for the 2025 year in review questions: 18!!
2025 In Review !
18. Share your favorite opening line
Ooh! This is such a fun one!! Okay, I'm going to take it as only opening lines I strictly wrote in 2025 to make it easier because it only gives me four options. Actually, screw it, my rules now lol, I'm sharing all 4 of them, I'll rank them!! (I'm going to include the prompt dialogue as well as the first line i myself wrote for the one of these that was done off a prompt.)
Carlos may have miscalculated, leaving Junpei alone for an extended period of time like this.
âYou were never supposed to find out.â She blurts it like itâs torn from her, like she needs to get the words as far away from herself as possible as quickly as possible.
When he wakes up, itâs to white walls, a white ceiling, white lighting.
Your father is a renowned magician.
(1 being my favorite! What can I say, I'm a sucker for humor.)
HAHA. LMAO okay considering we were just talking about your WIPs and whatnot this is maybe a mean question to ask but i am genuinely curious about the number
For the 2025 in review ask game: 1 and 10!!
STOP LOL. You would make me go look this up because i'm ALSO now curious the number, hahaha. Rude. Love you bud!
2025 In Review !
1. Including WIPs, how many fics have you worked on since January 1st? Original fiction counts too!
Oh boy. GREAT question. Awful question, also, haha.
short answer: 46
longer answer: Made 24 new docs this year. Edited 22 continuing WIPs created before 2025. If anyone (Ben, dedicating this to you) cares for a detailed breakdown, I'm going to add it under the readmore!
Bonus, even though you didn't ask, bc it's relevantly hilarious:
2. How many did you post for other people to read?
0 (zero). Yippee,, :]
(Technically yes I did share a bunch of unfinished fics with a couple friends to read privately but no I did not post any haha.)
10. What fic made you feel the happiest to work on?
OOH. Great question. Is it cheating to say the AATTAU?? Only because in terms of writing, I didn't actually do any for it haha. But I just love it so much.
(For the uninitiated, "AATTAU" is my shorthand for Ace Attorney Time Travel AU, although to be completely honest it's maybe less "time travel" and more "memory shenanigans across time/universes" and --ohhhhhh my god it's Zero Escape. How have I gone nearly 2 entire years and NEVER clocked myself that it's Zero Escape. Oh my god it's a SHIFTer au. oh m--) (Okay it's not but I fear it now completely makes sense why I had such a visceral reemergence ZE phase in the middle of 2025.)
My answer is going to be the AATTAU but secondary answer of a fic I actually wrote any prose for in 2025 will funny enough go to my Zero Escape fic. I wrote several pages of Carlos POV while at the beach lounging on the sand with my actual friends, and it was a very nice day so I associate happy memories with it even though I was still in the throes of writer's block overall.
Thanks for the questions!! I'd say sorry this is so long except it's YOU so I won't because you absolutely knew you were winding me up when you asked <3
LONGEST ANSWER to question 1:
I created 24 new docs this year, but of those:
8 were just notes and/or outlines,
12 were basically just placeholders with vague one-sentence descriptions so i wouldn't forget new fic ideas entirely, and only
4 were anything i actually wrote any significant amount for.
Those 4 created-in-2025, true-WIP fics, in ascending order of word count, are:
346 words of a Rune Factory 4 fic inspired by a whump prompt ("You were never supposed to find out.") It's Doug/Frey, in which they're already married and Doug comes home to find Frey casually bleeding out on their rug and, understandably, feels some feelings about that.
1062 words of a Zero Escape fic, set post-Zero Time Dilemma "good" ending and exploring what happens in that universe, but also and perhaps mainly featuring Quark and K being sent back in time via the transporter pods, from a post-Virtue's Last Reward "true" ending world where Sigma happened to somehow recover the pods from DCOM. Akane/Carlos/Junpei, Quark interacting with all of them but of course especially Junpei; Diana/Sigma, Kyle interacting with both of them of course but also with Akane, Sigma and Akane additionally therefore being forced to reckon with consequences of alternate actions they very much would have made (did make) for the sake of the non-Radical 6 timeline; bringing back the 999 characters to weigh in on things (justice for Aoi and Light!), the aftermath of what happened to Clover and Alice, lots of fun stuff for me personally. My ZE magnum opus, really, if I could just get around to writing it for real lol.
4548 words of a 9-1-1 fic (SIGH) which coincidentally for better or worse is also actually the exact 9-1-1 fic idea I have that I am, ironically, LEAST interested in / have spent the fewest excessive hours thinking and yapping about, sixth place out of six. It's a Buddie amnesia AU, which did come about because I read a bunch of them and decided I needed my own version.
6384 words of an Ace Attorney fic, which Ben you will be very familiar with considering it was written entirely in our discord DMs. Second person POV, was originally just me summarizing Thalassa's life story from her perspective (think, like, "Imagine if you will, you're a renowned magician who...") which spiraled WILDLY out of control, and ended up being a kind of cool semi-poetic character study in the end lmao. I totally could have cleaned this one up and posted it last year / meant to ever since I wrote it back in MARCH but uhhh. Never got around to :) Maybe this is a This Week project now, haha.
Of the 22 already extant WIPs that I fiddled around with in 2025, I edited:
14 Ace Attorney fics, with exactly half of those being from my 2024 AU-gust fics. I swear I am GOING to finish those someday, but as for 2025, yeah I messed around with a bunch of them but wasn't able to complete any more just yet. The remaining 7 fics are all ones that have been WIPs since anytime from 2024 all the way back to 2018. Someday I will finish you, actual-pianist Phoenix fic...someday.
2 Lucifer fics (one in which Ella knows about angels from the beginning but wrongly assumes Luci himself is full of shit, one where Charlotte doesn't die / Amenadiel is able to stop time to save her. And Asrael is there in both of them lmao.)
1 Merlin fic, a merthur bodyswap fic which, to be fair, the first chapter of IS totally completed. I just have no idea how long it'll take me to finish past the half of ch2 I've written, so I haven't posted it yet, but lately I've been considering putting it up anyway.
2 Rune Factory (4) fics. One Arthur/Doug fanchild OC (Fiona) POV which I really really am SO CLOSE to having finished, and the other is Doug/Dylas bodyswap soulmates with time travel flair (which tbh I forgot I'd even opened in 2025 until I started going through my drive for this!)
2 Ted Lasso fics, both established relationship Jamie/Keeley/Roy oneshots, one of them about Jamie's feelings about his name and the other about Roy and Keeley coming home from a trip to find Jamie reading one of the books Ted gave the team on the couch, and Roy trying desperately to Only give him shit about it / express patronizing shock over it and to Not At All find it, like, remotely attractive, while Keeley mostly laughs at both of them.
1 Young Justice fic, which was always meant to be just a short oneshot but which is taking me way too long to actually finish. It's a friendship relationship exploration / missing scene about Wally's feelings on Kaldur willingly putting on the Helmet of Fate as "Plan B" against the Injustice League and almost forfeiting his personhood forever.
And for what it's worth, of those fics I edited, many upon many of them are indeed ones that are like, a scene away from completion...
And to make this even longer / worse. None of this even includes all the work I've done brainstorming and ranting and raving to various people about the fics I haven't properly edited my outlines of. And by various people, I really mean Ben for sure gets the worst of it. Did you know, i did edit my AATTAU notes document.... LAST APRIL. Why would Future Patt ever need something like a functional outline document anyway, though? My beloved Ace Attorney Time Travel AU is, notoriously, a simple creature with very few moving parts to keep track of. :) No prablem. :) Btw I also still haven't written down my Patty IT fic outline <3
ANYWAYYYYY. Sorry not sorry for this answer being longer than the actual work I did on fics last year ;;
I don't know about you, but I can't believe it's time to post this list again. Like in the past, questions focus on what you created and how you felt this year.
Two ways to play:Â Reblog and have your followers send you numbers, or answer the whole list!
Including WIPs, how many fics have you worked on since January 1st? Original fiction counts too!
How many did you post for other people to read?
What's something NEW that you tried in a fic?
What piece of media inspired you the most?
How many fandoms did you write for?
What ship(s) captured your heart?
What character(s) captured your heart?
Did you write for any new fandoms or ships?
What fic meant the most to you to write?
What fic made you feel the happiest to work on?
What fic was the most satisfying to finish?
What fic was the most challenging to work on?
What's the most interesting topic you researched for a fic?
What were your shortest and longest fics?
What was on your writing playlist?
Where did you write? Was there a favorite spot?
Whatâs your favorite title of the year?
Share your favorite opening line
Share your favorite ending line
Share your favorite piece of dialogue
Share the funniest line(s) you wrote this year
Did you get frustrated with a fic at some point? What happened and how did you get past it?
If you had to choose one, what was THE most satisfying writing moment of your year?
Did you do anything special to celebrate finishing something?
Did you create fanworks other than fic? Show one off!
How many fannish events did you take part in? Things like bangs, exchanges, ship weeks, zines, prompt memes, etc. They all count!
Think back on everything you've worked on since January and give yourself a compliment. A real one! Be nice to yourself.
Ace Attorney AU August oops-august-has-been-over-for-a-week Update!!
Hiiiii well okay first and most importantly of all! Happy investigations collection day everyone!!!! My copy is supposed to arrive by 10pm although I'm not sure I'll be playing it right away, but, hey, once it arrives I'll have in my possession at least one physical copy of every game in the series (2 for aai1, woohoo)!!! *Coughs* uh except all of the OG Trilogy which instead I own like 2 times over digitally (3 in T&T's case, thanks Wii) lmao. Ah well.
NOW the actual post. Yeah it's not August anymore but I've been recuperating or w/e so shhh, better late than never!
Overall I wrote over 50k words (actually in August itself) and posted 5 fics (with many more in progress), which is honestly just, wild???? That is so cool. Apparently the way to overcome writer's block is just overcommit to a month-long prompt list, who knew!
Here is my post about the first 17 days/AUs! And over here's my Ao3 series for these! Below the cut I'll wrap up the last 14 days of AUs, some thoughts, etc!
I am setting the goal for myself to actually finish writing these before the end of the year even if they're not technically "AU-gust" qualified anymore by the time I get to them sooo ...wish me luck!! In the meantime I am proud of myself for (tbh completely unnecessarily and to my detriment lmao) coming up with actually a full 31 solid AUs based on the prompts that I feel inspired by.
This post is gonna be a bit more rambly than the last one because I definitely did more of my writing last month the first 2 weeks rather than the last 2, but nevertheless--
Onto the remaining AUs!
18 - Space Travel
So, I actually started a draft at the airport before my vacation where I got wayyyy too sidetracked getting detailed about this one and thus ended up not being able to finish the post before takeoff lmao. I'm not sure whether it's annoying or interesting to include all of that here, but it's my post so fuck it, here's August 21st patt to tell you aaall about it so I don't have to:
The Martian AU (I've only seen the movie and not read the book but i *did* literally just re-watch it because this thought crossed my mind lol. (Hello! It's future me popping in to say: fun fact, rewatching this movie literally ended up being the reason I knew a bar trivia answer last week lmao. Huzzah for the powers of Ace Attorney refreshing my movie quote knowledge.) Be glad this one occurred to me because my first inclination was to lean into the dark past of my vld phase (I'm super joking I had a lot of fun with it before the last few seasons haha sorry idk what to tell you friends) and see how much I'd retained if i tried to make that work but the martian sounded more fun in the end).
Apparently my Thingâą is a) poisoning Phoenix and b) putting Apollo in an insane situation in which he's completely on his own--which all things considered is probably far meaner lol. I think Phoenix is to blame for creating his own problem here for choosing to eat the stupid necklace but I fully blame Capcom for all the BS Apollo has gone through after AA4 (bc...the stuff IN that game is. coincidentally also Phoenix's blame to claim. lol). That said I'm part of the problem teehee. Apollo can be Some Guy from the real world who gets isekai'ed and he can also be Mark Watney :P (sorry bud I love you but you have just the Worst case of unavoidable main character syndrome). ((Which is QUITE funny actually because I'll never get over Capcom calling 4,5,6 the """"Apollo Justice Trilogy"""" (it's really not and it's frankly insulting they're trying to say it is.) Like he's. Yâknow. The main character in exactly one of those games...... so.))
What was I talking about? Lmao oh yeah so Apollo is left on Mars (not sure he actually has much in the way of Botanistâą vibes but the indomitable, never-say-die, highly sarcastic vibes.... ye haha that's my boy right there). Omg wait sorry I'm writing this and realizing this whole thing actually fits the 18th AND yesterday's (the 20th) prompt as well. Whoops.
Clay as the captain (let him do something, says I)
Trucy as I think the pilot ONLY because I am literally constantly on the lookout to make a Wright Flying Brothers joke, sorry
Klavier aaaas. Uh. So the German astronaut in the film is the chemist and navigator and I know Klav's not necessarily supposed to be actually German canonically but there IS something funny about it
Athena as the flight surgeon and EVA specialist (for a couple reasons but mostly so she can be a doctor lol. I imagine she also can be there for psych stuff too, like, it's a long ass space voyage, that does shit to your brain)
Kay as the SysOp and reactor tech, tbh mostly because for some reason i really have a thing for hacker/programmer Kay, i guess?
Ema I want to be there also lol so that would be exceeding the actual number of OG astronauts but eh it's my AU. The rest of these I'm just directly comparing to a crew member from the martian but I think some of the titles and tasks could be redistributed a little to allow an extra person as a treat for me.
Originally i kind of wanted Sebastian (....SIGH. or...Eustace. (I fear even though it's AAIC release day today, I truly may die on this hill forever, falling on my sword of devotion and gratitude to the fan translation team... That said, while I think Eustace is, like, a Deeply Fine name, I have to say that Excelsius is a fucking knockout name lmfao, that one took me out. Anyway, ahem: "I wanted Seb/Eustace...")) to be there too but I think that's getting into too many cooks territory just specifically bc I'd have too many voices to play with lmfao. So instead I think he's the operator who works the satellite and realizes Apollo is alive, I think he'd fit that well. NOT THAT that needs to be. Included. In the AU. I have...so much self control.
Anyway I have too many thoughts about it, it's a problem, ironically I think I would prefer to focus on the crew and not Apollo himself, so that would at least make it more than just a rehashing of the movie/book. (Or, the movie at least. Does the book spend more time with them? I should read the book.)
...I did, Of Course, also came up with a funny, pseudo-future-science-y way to do a Sibling Reveal in this one, so there's that, too, haha.
OKAY AND, SCENE. Snatching my mic back from myself. I'm actually so devoted to the Martian AU now hahaha, I really didn't think I'd let that happen to myself but here we are... You'll see in a bit, but I for-better-or-worse do truly have an extended universe going on for it now, eheh... (Help.)
19 - Spies
Franmaya?? Franziska POV??? Here's the deal: I cannot BELIEVE I got this many days into the month and STILL hadn't come up with a franmaya-centric AU, it's terrible. Also I need a Maya POV if I want to hit my self-set, self-indulgent goal of having POV of every "main" character I can (did I exactly accomplish this no but that's perfectly fine obviously haha it was just a side achievement I had my eye on).
So to that end, I ended up with something here that I'm not COMPLETELY sure I won't end up changing when I sit down to actually work on it, but in short: semi The Princess Bride vibes but with spies instead of pirates! Or uh! So um okay full disclosure lol I got all excited about an AU of this kind and then like an hour into daydreaming it into existence I realized I was heavily relying on / leaning into ASSASSIN territory rather than SPY. Which are notably different things. (Wait lol should I blame Spy x Family?? Totally Endo-sensei's fault and not at all mine, boom, take that.)
...And not to go even harder into sxf territory, whoops, but my idea was something along the lines of like, since Kurain School Channeling changes spirit mediums' appearance entirely, I was going to have Maya be something of an expert in disguise, and Franziska I was almost more or less going to let retain her actual position of international prosecutor with Interpol, although perhaps I'd lean more into a James Bond-esque intelligence agency sort of thing than what we see them do in-game, I'm not sure.
Maya gets "killed" for real in 2-4 except she actually just becomes an international assassin(?) apprentice. Does this make sense? Probably not lol. But is it a little funny and a little sad? Yes, yes it is, and that's always my sweet spot as a writer.
The only problem with this premise is I can't stop myself from considering what Phoenix would do / be doing in the background, because the problem with Maya "dying"-only-being-secretly-alive leaves at least twofold problems in justifying why Nick hasn't gone full conspiracy theory board stop-at-nothing-to-find-her, in that a) If she's not dead, Pearl can't channel her, and knowing Pearl I have to imagine that would be her first move to try tbh, and b) even if that weren't an issue, if the police were never able to track down Maya's body at all, I fully believe Nick would still throw himself at the problem until he's able to find answers irregardless, so. This ain't about him though!! So we'll just all have to deal with knowing he's taking reaaally really bad care of himself while he single-mindedly tries to figure out what's going on ahaha...ha. He's most absolutely the drowning child in the facebook post meme. Don't worry about him.
20 - Crossover/Fusion
Soooo. Okay. First may I say, I'm not the most crossover-fic-y person in the world neither as a reader nor writer. HOWEVER. Unfortunately. My one undying weakness has proven to be Ace Attorney x Legally Blonde (and more specifically Legally Blonde the Musical, the best version, though I do love Reese Witherspoon's performance ofc it's iconic but the musical is just MWAH ugh. One of my all-time favorite musicals and definitely the one I've listened to the most esp the past couple years hahaha.)
The problem is, I've joked about so many slight variations / one very Long Intensive specific AA/LBtM crossover AU ideas, that trying to limit myself to a one-shot I could conceivably finish within a day proved too much for my decision paralysis and I didn't end up writing any of them lmao. Alas.
Mostly, I just think it would be funny to see the characters interact in something of a vacuum just for fun, the problem is just that I happen to be uniquely terrible at not thinking through a Crack AU until I can, ahem, "crack" it, so to speak, to make it actually justifiably function. So in theory all I want to write for this day is some combination of like, Elle and Phoenix interacting and Miles and Emmett interacting, or the four of them having a conversation that goes something like "omg wait me too!! i also went from a creative undergrad degree directly into law to chase after some guy!! what are the odds teehee" while Emmett and Miles watch in horror, and also alternatively Emmett and Phoenix mostly bemusedly watching Elle and Miles geek out over like, fancy ass high class (pink) clothing like "uh yeah i have no idea what any of those words mean. she bought me this suit and i honestly wouldn't even be able to find the store again. oh no way he bought you yours too?? man, wild." Etc.
(If anyone's interested in really watching me suffer and spiral: my longer and more intensive idea for an AU with them is to have them be tackling parallel cases where either of them (Elle and Phoenix) has specific knowledge that is helpful to defending the others' client, and they get like place-swapped through dimensional shenanigans somehow also related to the cases. And Phoenix has to abide by, like, nominally-accurate US trial law (I know he wouldn't really be licensed shhhh) -- by which I mean Emmett is sitting as his co-council and exercising the most restraint possible to keep from bashing his head into the table every two seconds. And Elle has to abide by guilty-until-proven-innocent Japanifornia trial law ("wait WHAT omg what do you MEAN the prosecution can just, like, not submit their evidence before the trial???? wait what do you MEAN we should just TAKE THAT that is EVIDENCE AT A CRIME SCENE--"). On the bright side, Elle gets to experience being one of the most normally-dressed people in a courtroom and not at all being looked down upon for her general vibes and wardrobe (like tell me she wouldn't fit right in in the ace attorney universe and seem completely ordinary), and Phoenix gets to experience a real jury (take that jurist system trial that Capcom would like to never ever talk about again) and also the judge going "so, Prospective Juror No. 103, do you understand that the defense in this criminal trial does not need to say a single word in order to be doing their job? the burden of proof lies entirely on the prosecution the entire time and the defense and defendant could choose to remain silent every day of trial and that would be completely within their rights, do you understand that? are you okay with that?" etc etc, shout out to my jury service a couple month ago and the kinds of questions a real life California judge asks jurors that would seriously blow the minds of every single character in Ace Attorney lmfao can you imagine? Anyway.) So yeah idk. Also something something, spirit mediums and the whole Greek Chorus bit from the musical... "School Spirit"... much to think about in crack AU land hahaha.)
21 - Absurd Tragedy
To be honest with you, this is the entire series lmao, so much so that I had trouble even thinking of an AU to be "alternate" in any way here, hahaha. What I sort-of landed on and have vague outline notes about in my doc is (not to make another excellent-musical-adaptation-of-an-already-top-tier-movie-which-is-itself-a-highly-unfaithful-adaptation-of-a-fairly-obscure-book reference) a Shrek the Musical "I Think I Got You Beat"-style debate about whose canonical absurd tragic circumstances are the worst, lmfao.
Granted, this then turned into a "wait what if I use said argument as an absurd way in which to make Apollo and Trucy have a siblings realization completely on their own, which both compounds the fact they've both already lived such tragedy to begin with but also could touch on Phoenix knowing about it and not telling them about it", and uhhhhh lmfao a debate specifically between them is OBVIOUSLY not the romantic flirting banter of the song between Shrek and Fiona lmfao but like still, the general premise, just in a sibling bickering coat of paint instead.
Also was toying with it being an Athena POV just to sell home / for the additional absurdity of the experience of "you've gone over to your friend's house to hang out and suddenly they're obnoxiously arguing with their sibling and their parents are nowhere to be seen and you're not exactly sure what you're supposed to do with yourself except awkwardly wait for them to be done" lmfao. Which I've most absolutely experienced from both ends multiple times hahaha.
The alternative option for this prompt is just for me to write an excessively long essay debating and attempting to personally rank the main cast's level of absurd tragedy compared to each other, lol.
22 - Orphan
I wrote 324 words (slash one physical lined page in my actual notebook) of this while I was on vacation, lol. AU where Miles invites Phoenix to go watch one of Gregory's trials (or Phoenix invites himself, or Gregory invites him while Miles tries to hold the landline phone away from him, lol) and I mean of course the trial he goes to is The Trial (like, Jeffre... AW CRAP wait I don't actually know what Jeff Master's or Kate Hall's official names are lmfao uhhh. Well you know what don't worry about that. Happy AAIC day once again..? Lol. Anyway, the concluding day of Gregory's last trial, obviously, ignore the defendant's name.)
Like, basically, here's my thought. AU where Phoenix is also there, and not only does that mean he knows what happened to Miles and Gregory but also, like, it's Phoenix. Tell me even at 9 he wouldn't be insisting on taking care of the poor kid who just lost everything and has nowhere in the world to go. Tell me he's not like, begging his parents they need to help him, lol.
I think really this is just sort of an AU to explore one of my several personal headcanons for what Phoenix's parents are like, because I've spent a lot of time on a different version of them (coughs for the last AU on this list...coughs) but I also have a version of them which I find fun / funny where they're like, kinda hippy-dippy and like very hands-off (tbh almost all of my hc's about the Greater Wrights is they're very hands off, just in different ways) but in more of a "we want our child to experience the beauty and wonder of the world on his own time and not influence him or set rigid standards to conform to" kind of philosophy. Anyway my point is they like adopt/foster Miles somehow before Manfred can actually get his hands on him (he's still too busy dealing with the fresh bullet wound I guess?)
This is just a gen au of course, not only because they're 9 lol but also the logistics of being adoptive/foster siblings gets weird quick lmao, but mostly I just find it interesting to think about what might have happened if Miles was in an environment where people paid more attention and cared more (and weren't explicitly influencing and manipulating him to exasperate the problem on purpose), because I have to imagine examining his nightmares a little more closely a little more quickly might have led someone (say, Phoenix who was also there in this AU) to find something slightly off about it or like start putting pieces together quicker, idk.
I, uh, I'm not gonna lie to you, I don't actually remember how I intended to end this one hahaha ;; I started it but I was on vacation and neglected to outline / summarize the rest of my ideas the day of, so I guess I'll just have to see where my mind takes me when I get back to it.
23 - Musician
So my FIRST thought for this day was to use it as an excuse to finish my First Ever Ace Attorney Fic, which has been in WIP stasis for...uh.... 6. Years. i--SIX????? Shit. lmfao. yeah uh. I guess I created the first version of the doc (on my OneNote, god) back in 2018. So. Yeah. Hm.
Omfg. This fic has partially existed since before Phoenix Disbarment Day. That is so. Wow. Damn. Y'all we're so close to aa4 time (2026) what the hell??? Ahem.
Pianist Phoenix. That's. My point lmao. I know the original thing that sparked me loving this concept was actually some tumblr post I saw apparently a LONG long time ago, hahaha, and I know there's no way I'll find it with tumblr's abysmal search function, but just know it was not a completely original idea of mine when I say i fucking LOVE the headcanon that, you know what actually Phoenix CAN play the piano, he just chooses to do it as shittily as possible because that's kind of what he's like post-disbarment and he'd absolutely get a kick out of fucking with people like that even if they have no way to know they're being fucked with.
It's like, he's no virtuoso or anything, but he can passably play the piano! He's just being an ass on purpose! It kills me every time lol.
I won't say I think that's necessarily true in canon so ofc it's not like an end-all-be-all hc for me or anything but it's just sooooo funny to me that I like to break it out any time I possibly can. Look me in the eyes and tell me he wouldn't. Honestly, look me in the eyes and tell me if he actually put his mind to it in any meaningful way he wouldn't be able to get decent quickly regardless, considering the fact he became an accomplished lawyer on more-or-less a total whim.
This to say: that was my intention, to finish this fic I've had brewing that was about Phoenix actually being able to play the piano and hiding it for a really long time but eventually being found out by Miles by chance.
Except then I sat down on the plane and started writing a Pearl POV instead? In which she finds out about more or less the same exact concept but from Iris--also by chance, but less actually catching him playing and more being asked, "Oh, does he still play? He was always good at that." And then bc it's Pearl (Pearl I love you), of COURSE she goes and confronts him about it. Pearl might be the single most confrontational character in these games tbh which is SO FUNNY to me. Like I'm kind of exaggerating obviously but also am I? I know she has psyche-locks you have to break through multiple times throughout the series but stiiiill. Everyone else is so repressed and weird about anything remotely vulnerable, I stg. Props to Maya for making sure Pearl turned out pretty okay I guess, lmao.
Anyhow yeah that's sort of the AU I ended up with. Pearl POV where she and Iris know they're sisters (don't get me started on this I have so many thoughts about the amount of information I'm positive Maya and Pearl are NEVER given skjflj) and Pearl visits Iris in prison regularly and on one such visit maybe she mentions Nick's job at Borscht and Iris makes a totally innocuous comment to the effect that Pearl learns he actually knows how to play the piano and she goes to get mad at him about it because he's definitely been pretending he can't and Pearl's pretty sure he's told neither Maya nor Trucy the truth and that cannot be left to stand.
24 - Pretend Hate
Okay, this exists in a similar realm to the Orphan prompt, except instead of Phoenix being there for the trial or the Wrights taking Miles in before Manfred can, it's more just AU where Miles doesn't actually cut all contact and he and Phoenix successfully end up exchanging correspondence (in semi-secret) during the time they're separated (i.e. they remain friends and close during the 15 years they're separated in canon).
"Semi-secret" because they--esp Miles--somehow hide who exactly it is they're talking / writing to all the time but don't necessarily hide the fact they are doing that. Like, a fake cultural / language exchange program or something? I feel like there could be a world where Manfred really doesn't give a shit what Miles is up to as long as he's being molded into "someone Gregory Edgeworth would hate" (I don't think he would lol but that's another AU) and becoming a model von Karma protege prosecutor and such. He obviously goes to lengths to cut Miles off from everything he's familiar with in that he takes him to Germany, but I've always thought it's way more on Miles feeling guilty and blaming himself and thinking he's unworthy / pushing people away being the reason why they never talked before aa1 despite Phoenix's "attempts to contact him," whatever those may be specifically. And, yeah, I've watched that one episode of the anime but tbh I don't really use anime canon for almost anything besides maybe some of the fun visuals, haha, so I'm kind of disregarding that anyway.
ANYWAY. My point is. The "pretend hate" part is that--sometime over the course of exchanging correspondence, Phoenix starts thinking something's weird and gets it in his head to "investigate" himself, since he's still in LA / has access to the scene of the crime and stuff, and then as a combo of him just plugging away at it until he has enough (circumstantial) evidence to be like "Miles I think you're wrong about this" and also a younger, slightly less repressed, slightly less in Manfred's pocket Miles actually being somehow willing to consider alternatives a little--they're able to put their heads together and eventually come to the (correct) conclusion ahead of time, before the 15-year statute of limitations, that it was almost certainly Manfred who did it. And then they work together to figure out how they can possibly PROVE that but they haven't thought of anything foolproof by the time aa1 events start rolling around (or at the very least, the 5-years-ago sections of aa3? It might make more sense if it's as soon as Miles returns to Japanifornia, and also I think Phoenix has way less reason to fall for Dahlia/Iris so hard if Miles is around and *coughs* available lmfao. Anyhow).
So, in the hopes it'll keep Manfred from getting suspicious of Miles, they publicly pretend to hate each other, putting on a show of more of the canon attitude Miles esp. has before 1-4, but behind the scenes they're actually working together trying to think of a way they can definitely get a conviction to stick that Manfred won't be able to worm out of.
And that's the AU! Idk, in terms of additional thoughts, I couldn't decide what to do / what would happen to Mia in this AU either, which doesn't super matter but did give me pause. So she might live, idk, depends the exact timeline. I do also think a scene where--Dahlia still hits on Phoenix in the reading room/courthouse library but he's like, actively there waiting for one of Miles' trials to conclude for a covert meeting, so when Miles gets there and is like "What are you messing with over there?" Phoenix is like "Oh, hey, check out this weird bottle some girl just gave me because apparently she fell in love at first sight, haha, isn't that so funny--" and then Miles recognizes it from the Fawles trial and they catch Dahlia earlier or something, idk. Or alternatively Phoenix was AT that trial so HE recognizes it. Or maybe it's funniest if he was there but doesn't recognize it until Miles does lmao, this is not the point of this AU but I can't stop myself from considering this part of it.
25 - Scientists
So THIS is the day I sort of alluded to earlier, many many words of post ago, where I got so invested in my The Martian AU that I started accidentally worldbuilding about it.
What I've started and have about 400 words of (slash one notebook page, again from the plane after my vacation), is like, AU where it's NASA instead of law and I can make Phoenix go "What, like it's hard?" only it's about literally rocket science this time hahaha. Basically for this fic I just thought, well what if Phoenix just shows up as a flight tech or engineer or something (idk I don't really know that much about real life astronautics) as Miles is preparing for some space mission or something and he's just like WHAT are YOU doing HERE.
I know I know I made Apollo literally be the titular martian and yes he ALSO has a (or tbh probably has a WORSE) canonical debilitating fear of heights, so, shhh, but I do like the idea that Phoenix is like, oh, who, me? In the flying metal death trap? No fucking thank you, I will be down here watching and talking directly to you through a headset or something. You cannot escape me however i can at least escape the building I'm in. No interest in seeing the Earth from above, thanks. Actually iirc Miles also doesn't love heights but meh whatever I'm fairly certain Phoenix talks about it the earliest in the series so there you go.
Anyway, this would all be a mission prior to whatever mission it is that Apollo & Co. go on to Mars for the first part of the AU, so I guess you could consider it a prequel? And probably a fairly shippy one. I have other reasons for which it's fun for me if wrightworth is at least together if not outright married before the events of the "The Martian" part of the AU, so this one would be, like, about how exactly that went down.
26 - Victorian Era
Okay, once again, this just. IS. Literally. Dai Gyakuten Saiban / The Great Ace Attorney. Lol. That said, I've always loved the fanart I've seen of like Ryuunosuke and Phoenix (and respective Co.'s) interacting, or like, one or the other ending up in the other time period somehow, so I thought it'd probably be fun to try my hat at that. I feel like I've neglected the tgaa characters anyway, considering I actually somehow managed to reference PLvPW already, which is obviously significantly more of a spinoff and also just largely non-canonical, lmao. Also tgaa is just SO GOOD, augh. I'd love to have the multi-witness cross examinations from both of those games back sometime again, and I had so much fun with the jury in tgaa too, excellent mechanic.
What was I talking about? So, I never completely decided on a concrete direction to take this, but even before AU-gust had started I'd already been toying with the idea of an AU where maybe Maya or Pearl channels a character from tgaa specifically because some documentary or special or something comes out talking about the real-life Herlock Sholmes (as opposed to the Totally Fictional "Sherlock Holmes" who Phoenix references in that one trilogy line, because I really think that's the funniest possible explanation for the discrepancy) and they're arguing over how that cannot possibly be a real person and no one was named that and etc etc and then to prove once and for all one way or the other Hurley is channeled and also for bonus joke content "recognizes" Phoenix at first (idk pretend his eyesight got worse in his older age, I know Phoenix and Ryuunosuke look, tbh, less alike than Ryuu and Apollo do, lmao, but again that's another AU) and then I get to play with Phoenix's mom's maiden name is Naruhodou and his middle name is Ryuuichi or such to that effect, because that is also a favorite headcanon of mine (not in small part because I can project my own life onto him by making him half-Japanese from SoCal, lol).
So that's an idea I'd had that was already decently fleshed out and the ONLY problem is that if I'm having characters actually be channeled then there's a very real limiting factor of how many spirit mediums exist, and also that means Maya and/or Pearl don't get to interact with them, which for the sake of not overwriting would be good but for the sake of my love of a chaotic group conversation would be bad.
But, uh, hopefully I do manage to hold myself to a less broad cast of characters, ideally, instead of bringing a bunch of them over to the other time period to see how they'd deal with that and interact en masse. Ha. Haha.
27. Younger / De-Aged
So here's another AU I'd already had idle thoughts about before AU-gust had even started! I...will get into this later, TRUST I will, lmfao, but I do have an extremely involved AU already in which Time Travel of the "regression" type is involved, i.e., they have their memories of the "future" but are thrown back into the past including their own younger bodies however-many-years-ago. So I've got that type of thing covered, I promise I do, haha.
And additionally, I've actually already written them "younger" for my colorless AU way back on day 2, so I did think perhaps I'd just continue that one and say it was for this prompt (a smart person thing to do. this is the objectively correct option).
On the other hand. I find pre-DL6 Phoenix and Miles reacting to how their lives actually turned out in the end HILARIOUS. Tell me it's not funny. And tell me it's not, like, some sort of depressing-yet-ultimately-hopeful for the older/current them to look at their child selves and be like Kid, Oh, You're Going To Go Through Some Shit, but also reflect on how they did make it and things turned out okay and life goes on etc etc. My problem with this kind of thing is that it's hard to come up with a justification for and that's not a problem in itself but it is a problem in me not knowing how i'm going to end a fic, which often gets me decision-paralysis-ed into not being able to start it in the first place, which did in fact happen to me here, haha.
I think ideally I'd just do a quick "wait, was that a dream?" kind of thing where they (Miles and Nick) have a short conversation with themselves, but...
Uh-oh, what, did you think that was all I had? You clearly don't know me at all. OTHER au option where young Phoenix is in the future/present and rather than himself and Miles it's the Wright Anything Agency who like, idk, find him roaming the streets of LA (fun fact! I actually came up with this AU one day while I was quite literally roaming the streets of LA myself at like 3am-ish. Do with that what you will). He is of course wearing a hat or beanie or something at first because come on, that's way more fun, and no matter how much Trucy, Apollo, and Athena are like "hm idk something about this kid seems familiar" I just don't think my first thought upon seeing some vaguely familiar kid alone on the street would be, like, "Oh, that's obviously a child version of my father/coworker/boss!" So.
I'm not really sure that one has an end point either, though, so the same problem still stands, haha. The bad, someone get a spray bottle to spritz me, option of this is, obviously, to combine the two, so it's like the WAA find him first and then are like UHHHHH we need an adult (never mind actual adult-age-ness between them) and somehow end up getting Miles there too, but idk. I... should not. Overcomplicate. I shouldn't. Even, even if...august is over...so theoretically there's no longer any sort of On-Time component since it's late either way........ definitely not.
28 - Caretaker
Here are my exact notes / entire doc for this day. Ahem. And I quote:
i brought up the lighthouse keeper thing but i dont know where that would be going exactly
maybe this is a thing i could do franmaya for??? since i still havent gotten there?
actually lol that as a lighthouse thing is funny. ghost romance? my three tropes rattle
End quote. Anyway, shout-out to my friend hailstorm for being the one there to brainstorm "lighthouse keeper" with at the self-same bar trivia that I mentioned previously, lmao. I actually think that was even the same exact day as the The Martian quote was a relevant answer to a question.
So yeah, even though I already kind of have franmaya planned for the spies day, that's both kind of sort of a darker AU overall and--WELP well, okay, so, i do, you know, recognize maybe a ghost romance isn't, uh, necessarily the fluffiest kind of AU lmao. Don't mind that. My point is, I love the vibes of a lighthouse keeper AU, and I generally like ghost romance as a trope, so that does feel like a viable option. Honestly, I kind of separately wanted an excuse to practice writing miego also, so maybe the Feys are just all chillin' in this lighthouse for...Some Reason, and that's side-plot relevant somehow, idk. I know Franziska and Godot exist in the same place for a minute in 3-5, but I honestly can't really remember them interacting? I think she'd fucking HATE him though lmfao. He'd think she's funny but I actually think she'd be too reactive for his most preferred teasing/fucking-with-people dynamics, haha. Regardless, if he is there at all, it's a very minor B plot, I think, 'cause this ain't about him, lol.
29 - Forced into Hiding
Achtung, baby, 2566 words of this are written! Lol. So uh, yeah. In short, AU where Klavier gets hounded by fans on the street while he's also having just a bad personal day, and the closest and best place he can think to hide from them is at the WAA. I, um, actually hadn't realized I'd written quite this much of this, haha, it was supposed to be short and fairly silly but then it turned into Klavier having a little bit of a panic attack maybe and getting consoled by Apollo, sure, of course, but then also having to deal with and experience some amount of closure / reach some kind of understanding with the Wrights, also.
It's kind of part Klav character study, kind of part complaint against freaking Capcom for neglecting him (boo, I love him, stop ignoring him, or, yknow, worse, whatever the heck turnabout academy was supposed to do for him, which honestly almost felt like a step back to be quite honest). Okay, also, taking a slightly closer look at what I've already written, the REASON I'd thought I'd written way less than this is definitely because he hasn't even GOTTEN to the Agency yet, never mind spoken with any of its members, lmao. That would do it.
In any case, I like the idea of Klavier having a bit of a vulnerable moment, and I also like the idea of him and Phoenix actually, like, talking for real, instead of, once again, whatever Turnabout Academy and DD was meant to tell me, which seems to be less than nothing. I kind of like the fact that it gave him a law mentor? I mean, she was very dead, but I have a very meaningful Use for her in later-to-be-announced-AUs-I-keep-teasing, haha.
I of course considered other people and times when people in AA might be forced into hiding, but this felt like a silly but also meaningful way to do that without it just being an exploration of Miles and his not-suicide note (which wasn't exactly "forced" anyhow, he did that all on his own) or like, Zak Gramarye (who also completely did that to himself but w/e). Making it about Klavier completely escapes the bounds of canon, because canon is a weenie about talking about any of his actual feelings EVER, so screw you Capcom, I'm doing it for you. Don't worry about it.
Trucy commiserating with him about still Loving someone, perhaps the very closest person biologically related to you you've ever known and depended on in your life, who not only did you very big harm personally but explicitly used you in a very real and participatory way to perpetuate the harm elsewhere and all the complexities about Feelings For And About Them Therein, and Phoenix somehow having enough self-awareness to recognize that shutting down completely and isolating yourself away doesn't actually do you any good even when you're at your lowest, and recognizing that Klavier doesn't exactly have a "Trucy" to be a focal point to draw him out of that, and that therefore he needs to be a bit more open to his peers. (Insert joke about "Well, I'm really definitely not suggesting you go adopt an entire child, that's really probably, uh, not the way to go, actually, but, you know. Everyone needs people, that just makes us human." Etc.)
30 - The Beginning of the World
So, hm, as it turns out, I got extremely sidetracked this day thinking about the next day on the docket. Whoops! Unfortunately this ultimately means my ideas for this day as of now are relatively uninspired: I had the thought that I could explore the beginning of Troupe Gramarye, which is its own sort of world, or else, maybe something about the beginning of the series itself but from the somewhat unconventional POV of a one Mr. Larry Butz.
Yes, that's a bit self-serving in that it lends toward trying to complete a list of "main, recurring characters' POVs" that I've had as a sidequest all month, but, still. That said, just exploring actual canon through Larry's POV isn't exactly what I'd classify as an "AU" necessarily, so I feel like something would need to be different here.
Okay, wait--not to draw inspiration a dang week late to the party, BUT. Now that I'm typing this up, I'm thinking, okay, maybe, what if. The "Beginning" of the series, technically speaking, is basically the fact that Phoenix gets put on (class) trial for stealing Miles' lunch money--which notably only happened because Larry himself picked it up when it fell on the floor. So, perhaps, what about an AU where he doesn't do that? I mean, I guess it would just turn the entire world of AA into something of a terrible series of tragedies with no real closure about them, lol, rip, but it could possibly be interesting? I dunno!
(And, yes, I know DL-6 itself is more or less the basis of the series, if we're being ticky-tacky, but Phoenix wouldn't have been involved without meeting Miles, and that somewhat necessitates the class trial, and without him none of canon would get resolved, so. I will say, I do love going back to the earliest points to see how and how much you can make canon deviate or stay the same--reasonably speaking--via minor tweaks and butterfly effect and all that, so this could be interesting, although I once again must say I think it really just means a bunch of innocent people, Miles included, are going to be put away and possibly executed over murders that weren't their faults, lol. Hm. Much to consider.)
31 - Two(+) of the Above:
Beginning of the World + Younger/De-Aged + Canon Divergence (+ Feat. Jokers: Guardian, Everybody Lives)
With all of this, the ONLY prompts I've actually missed on this list become Animagus which I swapped for the Wings joker, and the last joker of the four, Thriller, which was never exactly a priority of mine because I'm not sure I'd write that sort of thing particularly well, so! Wild! Completionists everywhere almost rejoice, haha.
SOOOOO. For the eagle-eyed readers out there, I'll bet you're just dying to know what this one AU I've been teasing all post could Possibly be to warrant such a build-up, right? (...Right?)
The answer is the at-ow! (Phonetically, lol. I've been calling it that instead of out loud saying all the letters in AATTAU out loud every time.) My friend Ben can attest to the fact that this behemoth AU (her word which I'm stealing) has been in the works for, uhhhh... months?
MONTHS. AHAHA. Ha. That. Sure says March! It sure does! And it is not lying. Lmfao. (Ignore the time, I was working overnight then--my beloved work schedule whomst I miss dearly--so that's a perfectly reasonable discord-ing hour for March-me.) Also, once again, I'm choosing to blame Ben for my extensive AU problems, she sent me a very cute time loop AA fic that utterly destroyed my entire mind because it got the mere idea of "Time-based AU" caught in my endless void-idea-hole.
So. Here's the real rub. The literal reason I started doing this AU-gust challenge in the freaking first place was that I was absolutely Desperate to find a way to overcome my writer's block. And one of the (admittedly many) reasons I wanted to do this was because I have been ITCHING to write this stupid behemoth AU for real. I have a massive outline doc already, I have a whole slew of scenes planned, I have lots of character archage, I have sooo many things I want to say and explore about them all you have No Idea. It's extremely self-indulgent and absolutely my personal magnum opus for all my very specific favorite AA headcanons and ideas and thoughts.
And obviously, it worked! I did indeed overcome my writer's block! And I had so much fun doing it!! And I'll admit, from the very beginning, I had been eyeing that "Everybody Lives" joker prompt, because...that's it! That's basically the point of the AATTAU (Ace Attorney Time Travel Alternate Universe, if that wasn't clear, haha).
I don't want to let myself get TOO into it, because Oh Boy, I sure will! If you let me! Haha. But basically the premise is EXACTLY what I stated in that very first discord message I could find about it. Maybe not so much "time travel" technically speaking than it is "gaining memories of everything that happened in canon right as the DL-6 earthquake happens", so it's more regression than actual time travel since they're in their own younger bodies and everything, but still.
It's basically my excuse to treat canon like it did happen and YET allow for everybody to survive and for the very fun cocktail of traumas and joys that come from remembering what happened but having the chance for something different (and all the effort that goes into making something different happen in the first place).
Now, as far as AU-gust goes. I was obviously not about to even pretend I could remotely start this during August itself or justify connecting any of it to the series and the prompts I'd already written for it, lol, but I also couldn't get the idea out of my head, so I got it in my head I really wanted to end the month with SOMETHING that somehow tied into my AATTAU, if only to motivate myself to actually get on it and start writing out instead of solely outlining everything that's been in the works all these months.
So to that end, I saw the "Everybody Lives" and the "Beginning of the World" prompts, and an idea came to me. I'd been dancing around the justification aspect of this AU for most of the time I've had it because let's be honest, it's just a very self-indulgent idea and it does not NEED "justification" to serve the purpose I want it to serve and be what I want it to be. But the AU-gust prompts gave me some actual inspiration and an Idea as to a way to solidify my unnecessary "justification" but in a way that it doesn't need to be directly part of the final product of the AATTAU (like, I could make it a separate one-shot and either just link it to and from the AATTAU fic itself, or if it all ends up being a series, then I could just include it in the series but it wouldn't be necessary to read to understand what's going on.
And so, I present! The Ami Fey one-shot special I came up with just to fit these prompts :3
...And by "i present" i mean, uh, I wrote 4k words of it on the 31st and didn't even come close to what I wanted to cover, because I suck at being concise. Lmfao. (Shocker.)
Basically, I used Ami Fey as a semi-self-insert kind of godlike figure to reason out a semi-plausible way to make the concept I want to explore happen, happen. And I had a lot of fun, but I do still have a bunch to finish, but either way, I'm very pleased to have a (somewhat silly but ultimately fun for me) reasoning as to the gears ticking behind the scenes of my idea!
To be somewhat less vague, the whole AU is predicated on the idea that, Phoenix and/or Miles (who remember from the beginning / from December 28th, 2001) meeting the other characters at-or-after the time they originally met in canon are able to recall their memories of the "original" (i.e. canon) timeline. I've used some magatama shenanigans to have some fun with this, and I'm now using Ami Fey and magatama shenanigans to explain how and why this is A Thing, even if it isn't necessarily the objectively most logically sound argument I've ever made. It's still a good one, in my book, and more importantly I like it, so that's all that really matters.
To briefly explain the "two" (by which I mean 5?) of the "above" I'm using here:
Beginning of the World: This fic specifically would show the beginning of the "world" of this AU specifically! Woohoo! Go Ami Fey, creating a whole new set of problems for our beloved little Guys to go through, hahaha. I think I may have based her character a little too much on Maya mischievousness, but, oh well. Let's just say that's where she gets it from.
Younger/De-Aged: As I've already kind of expressed, the premise of this AU is mostly just them being their own younger selves except they also have the memories of all of canon (and maybe a year or two after the fact, I need to confirm a couple dates).
Canon Divergence: I feel like this is decently self-explanatory, but then again maybe it's a bit cheesy to include this here, since it basically diverges from nearly the first major event of canon (DL-6), but that's not the only time things go almost-canonically but diverge a bit in some way, so I think it really does fit here.
Guardian: This one is a bit multi-fold. It somewhat refers to the way I'm making Gregory Edgeworth the de facto guardian (as in, legal guardian) of mostly everyone I possibly can because I love him and he would be great at it. But also, guardian in that, Mr. Savior Complex Phoenix Wright himself has literally all of the information at his disposal to try to "save" the potential Happy Lives of literally every person he loves, and, well. He does a pretty good job about it; not without cost, haha, but I feel like I can definitely call him a "guardian" of others in this AU. And, as for specifically the one-shot Ami fic, she is essentially the guardian of the entire Fey lineage, in this AU at least, so that also totally fits and is most immediately relevant.
Everybody Lives: I think this one is pretty self-explanatory at this point, lol. But for the one-shot: Ami is essentially trying to secure an "everybody lives" scenario, even if it hasn't been achieved yet, so it's more an aspiration at that point, but ultimately it is indeed successful. Now, "living" does not mean, like, "totally healthy" (mentally or physically), so there's lots more to it, but in short, yes, they live.
And......that's basically a wrap on that!
I mean, it isn't actually at all, since I still have to finish 26/31 fics, lmfao, but as far as the idea generation stage goes, and the use of the AU-gust prompts, that's what's up in my world! Somewhere out there maybe there's an AU of my actual real life where i finished more of these on time, but i'm still pretty pumped by all the work that's already been made on making so many AA fics a reality for me. I've come a long way since starting that first AA fic in 2018...!!
I still have all the aforementioned 26 fics to finish obviously, and I also have AU continuations planned for at the very least, day 2's colorless prompt and day 3's dark academia prompt (let alone day 31's, lol, but that's its own monster entirely), but I'm optimistic!
Thankfully I actually finished using nano to word track for me before they, you know, doubled down on AI and called everyone "abelist" (???) for not supporting it, which, uh. Well. But for my own posterity and if anyone's curious, here's what my word counts looked like throughout the month of AU-gust--admittedly including some planning and outlining:
It ended up being 51,377 words total in August on these AU prompts alone!
I feel like I wanted to say something poignant and meaningful at the end here, but it's almost 9:30 and I work at 4am tomorrow, so I'm going to go ahead and wrap this post up here, haha. If you read all of this, thank you very much for joining me on my little journey!
Once again, here is the Ao3 series where I'll post anything more that gets done, so if you'd like to see how any of these AUs turn out, feel free to keep an eye on that!
And here is the previous post with the 1st half+ of the AUs if you missed it and are interested now!
My copy arrived literally as I was writing this up so I've spent the last several prompts of this post listening to the AAIC soundtrack in the music collection, and, oh man, it's seriously so surreal this exists??? I might be an old fogey who has and will for an indeterminate amount of time continue to have trouble letting go of the fan translation names I've lived with for the past decade or whatever, but it's seriously so awesome the entire series is finally available internationally!! Let's hope for my sake AA7 doesn't come out before I finish any of my AATTAU, because that would really throw a bit of a wrench in my decision-making process, lol.
hhhh okay i was really planning to actually make au-gust update post today but uh lol i have like less than 25 min to make that a reality and work in about 5 hrs sooooo i'll have to do that later i guess oops. i also really really wanted to post the day 31 fic today and like. theoretically it SHOULD have been achievable. literally incapable of being concise. on the bright side i did officially surpass 50k written in this one month and thats with writing almost nothing the whole week of my vacation last week lmao so uh Take That nanowrimo haha
Okay technically it's the 16th (lol, 17th by the time this is done) so a little over halfway actually, but still I thought since I haven't had anything finished to post the past few days this would be a fun alternative!
I've been going a little nuts (affectionate) over @augustwritingchallenge's AU-gust prompts list this year so August has been a wild ride (about 40k words of one, in fact. so far.) but seeing as I will get attached to even the jokiest of AU ideas instantly, I've completed* a whopping 5 whole fics of 16, lol. Considering the shortest of those is over 3k and the longest is over 12k, I think the problem with not finishing these in a timely manner is entirely on my verbose foolish thick skull, haha, but I'm still having a blast with it.
Here is my ao3 series where I'm posting!
And a rundown / progress report / quick teaser of all the AUs including those I've yet to finish, if anyone's interested:
(*by "completed" I should note two of the already posted fics are basically assuredly going to be continued past the challenge, but let's say "completed enough to post and be on theme")
1. Canon Divergence - complete - 4.5k words ("For the Murder of Mr. Wrong" link)
Mia POV, gen. What if Dahlia succeeded in poisoning Phoenix and framed Doug Swallow instead (and then Mia defended him in court)? Basically a 3-1 rewrite.
Fun Fact: I only came up with this AU because before I even remembered AU-gust existed at all, I'd come up with like 4 totally separate AUs in which I poison Phoenix in various ways With Real Consequences because it amuses me, lol, but he survives all those other ones and I eventually realized I hadn't even considered straight up killing him off yet so I figured I should try it at least once, haha.
Phoenix POV (for 1st ch --prob alternating after), wrightworth. "You can't see color until the first time you touch your soulmate"-soulmate AU. 1st chapter is their first meeting as kids (skipping the class trial itself).
Fun Fact(s): I really love a color soulmate AU! Big fan of the "only see the color of their eyes" type of one too but uhhh on top of that working better for things that have wild anime eye colors, you could not pay me enough to try to figure out what the HELL is going on with Ace Attorney eye colors at any given time lmfao.
(Also--spoilers for what i haven't written yet but hey if you're here you earned it--this IS one of my very many "teehee what if i poison Phoenix just a smidge as a treat for me" fics. NOT my fault the man ATE GLASS. That's on him.)
3. Dark Academia - complete "1st chapter" - 4.4k words ("The Spirit of the Laws of Magic" link)
Mia POV, lanamia. Magical boarding school setting featuring corruption and missing-student conspiracies and a most likely overthought system of magic with hierarchies and prejudices in societal views of academic/formulaic vs folk/innate magic.
Fun Fact: I really thought for SURE i was going to skip this day entirely, lol. (foolish.) I don't think i've actually ever personally read anything "dark academia", technically--so if this doesn't read EXACTLY that way, there you go, but i did my best. I also then thought I could live with keeping this vague but I accidentally thought about it too long so... plus at least two people on top of myself at this point have expressed interest in more of this and so I have some semi-concrete Plansâą now.
4. Zombie Apocalypse - conceptualized (but not started)
Concept: probably gen and Phoenix POV, but also because I'm me and they're them, at least a little bit wrightworth even if it isn't necessarily explicit in any meaningful way bc they are Not Normal about each other lol. A little sketchy on how much of an "AU" this counts for, since it could probably be argued to be canon compliant somehow, but basically just:
Universe where they make a Pride and Prejudice and Zombies-type Steel Samurai reboot movie thing (featuring, you guessed it, zombies), and Miles comes over and forces Phoenix to watch it with him just to have someone to bitch about it at, and then during that time Maya blows her way into Phoenix's apartment as well with the exact same intentions except her "day job" isn't quite as time-sensitive-strict so she's already finished watching it earlier and knows all the spoilers. Honestly a good chance Phoenix and Pearl (who came with Maya) end up hiding out in the kitchen together to let Maya and Miles rile each other up in front of the TV, but I'm never exactly sure where they'll take me once I wind them up and set them loose on the page, so who knows. I also hadn't necessarily determined the exact time frame yet but for it to make sense as a reboot-type movie/special episode/whatever it probably should be 7yg-or-later so Trucy may or may not be there as well. (That said, in my struggles to complete an actually short one-shot, I probably shouldn't even include Pearl let alone Trucy, lol.)
Fun Fact: I also thought I'd skip this day bc I'm not the biggest zombie guy in the world, and to be fair, I managed to do Way Less with it than the dark academia prompt so, yippie?
5. Chess Players - incomplete (currently 3k word WIP)
Miles POV, wrightworth. Miles is a chess grandmaster and back in Japanifornia for the upcoming world cup tournament, but his greatest challenge is actually to FINALLY best Franziska in their annual who-can-get-the-best-Christmas-gift competition. Luckily, he just so happened to hear of an artist who makes bespoke chess sets, so the plan is to get a custom board made for Franziska without her finding out. The plan is not to get trapped in a weird art collective labyrinth with some model-photographer named Cindy who keeps hitting on him but also happens to be protective of the artist he's there to see because "she and her boyfriend kinda-sorta owe him big time", but this is what he gets for coming here without doing any extra research into the artist besides seeing his work and hearing only "his name is White, or, eh, something like that, you know how those artist types are" from Mr. Amano.
(AU where we replace law with chess and no I don't think Phoenix could necessarily hack it in the top-world-grandmasters-level of chess tournaments HOWEVER have you considered he DID go to art school so what if he just tries selling custom chess sets until somehow that reconnects him with Miles. Is that somehow a more insane plan than studying law? Maybe. Did Manfred still shoot Gregory but now it was over fucking chess? Maybe. Idk. But I did let Greg live this time at least!)
Fun Fact: we can all DEFINITIVELY blame my lovely, terrible, very wonderful friend Ben (shameless friend plug! she's an outstanding writer and has some AA fics of her own too!! @kindlystrawberry on tumblr!!) for making a total joke about "well what about au where they make chess pieces instead" while i lamented not knowing enough about chess to write an actual match and spawning this ENTIRE concept. It is her fault. 100%. She is the guilty party.
(I want to finish this one VERY BADLY. Save me.)
EVIDENCE!!!!! Guilty.
6. Reality Show - incomplete (currently 700 word WIP)
Phoenix (& Franziska) POV(s), background wrightworth wedding planning going on as set up but it's also definitely just one of my many excuses to set Phoenix and Franziska up as bitchy worsties who can't admit they enjoy each other's company and will cut you down if you suggest it as such. So far I've only written the quote "set-up" section which is in Phoenix's POV, but that was SUPPOSED to be like 5 paragraphs and cut away and then lead into my actual plan for the main body, which was to be in Franz's instead, so.
This is very similar to the zombie one in that it's them watching reality tv instead of being contestants on a show (I don't personally like or watch a lot of reality tv so my creative well was somewhat dry on how to make that work) and then I accidentally thought about Phoenix and Franziska watching something just to judge and tear apart the decisions of every person on it and that was too fun to not consider further, haha. Basically the plan is just they get left alone together and don't know what to do with that and end up wine-drunk and making fun of some reality dating show of some kind and Miles and Trucy come back to them losing it together over something stupid and are like "......uh. what's happening."
Fun Facts: I really love the thought experiment of Franziska somehow discovering how often Phoenix's internal dialogue/reads on situations and especially people can be So Bitchy And Judgey despite his affable complexion, and her unfortunately finding his opinions to SOMETIMES be somehow slightly okay. Moderately correct, even--occasionally. I know the section she follows you-as-Phoenix around in T&T is really not long at ALL, but I adore it. There's something about it that so badly makes me want to force them into proximity more (to both their chagrin, I'm sure).
7. Farm/Ranch - complete - 12k words ("Two Little Dickey Byrdes" link)
Gumshoe POV, gumbyrde (tho i still think dickeybyrde is a funnier ship name). 5+1 things--except more like maybe 7-or-8+1 to be honest--so it's more: over 5 times Dick and Maggey sit on a wall together and 1 time they find someone else there instead. AKA: Dick runs his family's small farm (think fantasy farm like in a farming sim or maybe horse girl novel type of thing that has nothing to do with what a real farm is like lol don't worry about it) and Maggey starts working at the next farm over as the latest of her many odd jobs.
Fun Fact: oh god this one got so far away from me. it was not supposed to be this long lmao. it's literally the elaborate set-up to a very silly Nursery-Rhyme-I-Didn't-Even-Know-About-Prior-To-This -based punchline!?! still, i was pleasantly surprised by how happy i was with this once it was done... two sittings and about 16 total hours later. haha).
8. Nomad - incomplete (planned/outlined)
Apollo (or possibly Klavier) POV, klapollo. Sort of Jove-Thalassa swap adjacent, but basically: AU where Jove survives the Khura'in fire but loses his memories for [contrived convince sake reasons]. (And also possibly loses some or all of his eyesight just to really go for the parallels?) Therefore: Jove and Apollo stay with Dhurke and Nahyuta and the Defiant Dragons for a time, while Jove recovers, but eventually they leave and head out on their own, just the two of them, and do the traveling musician thing, both because it's dangerous in Khura'in and Dhurke already canonically didn't want Apollo to get caught up in it and potentially get hurt to begin with and because with a functioning actual parent Apollo doesn't need to be taken in by him--and also Jove from what little we know seems like he prefers to be on the move and was already a world traveler anyhow, so even amnesiac maybe he gets a little antsy stuck in one place too long.
And so like amnesiac Thalassa, Jove thusly becoming a renowned mysterious musician--and then Apollo, sweet tone deaf Apollo, becoming the sonager of all time (like a momager but...you get it) because he's not that into music but he IS into arguing for better conditions/making deals (contracts!! international legalese!! woohoo!!) with venues and promoters and stuff. And then--oops dang Lamioir still exists and now they have a meet-cute (2 electric bugaloo) (but by then it's later enough Trucy still exists because it will be a cold day in hell when I don't find a way to make her work) and they do music collabs or join up to form a group or whatever and OOPS this means now that Apollo and Jove are with Lamioir when The Gavinners / Klavier specifically meet her and get her to come to do the Guitar's Serenade concert eventually. And Apollo and Klavier ofc thusly also have a meet-cute and then talk and bond etc etc.
AND THEN the au STOPS THERE and I DON'T think about how without Apollo Phoenix is totally getting convicted of Zak's murder because there's no way that trial works out as well for him with some other attorney and I also don't think about how reasonable it would then be that maybe Trucy ends up helping Valant with his work setting up the trick for the concert afterward on account of the one father in prison and the other being dead and having left behind a notarized confession clearing Valant's name of suspicion, etc. AND I DEFINITELY do not think about how i could then still so easily get everyone in one place at the concert for Turnabout Serenade and/or any possible funny Sibling (And Thalassa) Reveal that could happen i dont i dont i do not--
Gen, possibly my weakest / least defined idea on this list, but basically: Phoenix kind of already lives this in canon, lol (insomuch as an 8yo counts as a baby) so I thought, well, how to take it a different direction, then? And I thought, I don't usually go for a Phoenix Fey kind of au because I personally really love the relationships he has with all the Feys as-is in canon and so it's not quite as funny to me as, say, a Miles Fey AU where like Misty and Gregory are married, or any of the ones in that bent, because I'm sorry but that's just SO funny (and sad, but mostly funny) any way you slice it--plus his NAME is RIGHT THERE mia-miles-maya he FITS--anyhow, that completely aside, there are just a lot of reasons I really love the platonic relationships the Feys already have with Phoenix and I don't think it NEEDS to be made specifically familial to still be so very important, y'know?
BUT. That said. AU where Phoenix is idk abandoned as a baby or maybe his parents die young or something and it's like a Thing to leave babies at temples or churches or whatever, right? So like--Phoenix adopted by the Feys AU but only because the more i considered it the more i thought it would be WILD for him to literally know Maya her entire life, and it's fascinating to me to consider a Maya who ISN'T basically left all alone to her own devices (and Morgan's) and who has someone absolutely in her corner in the village the entire time even after Mia leaves (who isn't a baby when Mia leaves, love you tho Pearls), AND also and perhaps more importantly, the ships-passing-in-the-night-ness of a scene where, like:
Morgan does something sketchy or whatever and Phoenix wants to keep Mia updated but for whatever reason decides to go down to the city and actually tell her in person and so he's waiting outside the courthouse or something (possibly part of or perhaps Most Of the reason he goes in person is because he knows her first courtroom trial is that day and he wants to see her + hear how it went) and when he gets there she's in a heated argument with some asshole in a fancy over-embellished jacket and once that guy leaves Phoenix is like "Sheesh, what's his problem?" You know???? And maybe he really would never even know!!!! Bc he grew up in Kurain!!!! And has no reason to care!!! About some random prosecutor who was mean to Mia!! Aaaah!!! So that, and on top of that, Diego would be there too ofc at that point, and I feel like he would ALSO be quite a funny interaction in this scenario. ("Wow, someone's popular, kitten, you have all sorts of guys waiting on a chance to talk to you, heh?" "Uh.--I'm sorry, WHAT did you just call her")
10. Enemies-to-Allies - incomplete (currently 370 word WIP)
Ema POV, faraskye. Cyberpunk AU where Lana is still under Gant's thumb and Ema, with no other way to stay close to her and getting rejected from any of the sorts of jobs she really wants to do, decides to just join the security force (or cyber police or w/e I decide to call it) and is tasked with hunting down the Yatagarasu, guerilla hacker supreme who is threatening the sanctity of the capitalist overlords. Except Ema's squad gets ambushed and she's captured and tied to a pole, and with her useless fop partner seemingly not coming to rescue her (if he even noticed her absence), she does some quick cost-benefit analysis and decides she didn't really like that job anyway and maybe there's another way she can get her sister back in her life. So she breaks free of her own handcuffs (which she definitely didn't modify into incidental ineffectiveness she's still testing for bugs) and helps fix the "Little Thief" device her captor seems to have broken despite how obviously valuable and impressive the tech is, and they eventually come to something of an agreement. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em, and all that.
Either Ema as the hardware-engineer one and Kay as the software-programming one as the two sides of the tech coin, or else Kay can just be like doing the physical sneaking kind of spy stuff only--or maybe she knows a little about software but not so much she's a pro the way she is with infiltration and such. Possibly toying with the idea Kay herself is just completely an android, but if not, I think she has some cybernetic cyborg things going on regardless. Possibly from or inspired by her father? I also like the idea that Gant did something maybe more drastic with regards to having dirt on Ema to get Lana to do his bidding--like maybe Ema has a whole cybernetic hand because instead of just her handprint on a leather jacket, Gant has some sicko jar with her entire hand in it in his office safe, or something. I don't know why this would be useful to him but it is certainly an image. I also find it funny if Miss Fingerprint Powder Enthusiast doesn't actually have any fingerprints of her own anymore somehow in this AU, lol.
11. Retail Worker - complete - 6.7k words ("The Bake Anything Boulangerie" link)
Apollo POV, gen. Phoenix gets a job at a bakery instead of the Borscht Bowl Club during the 7 year gap, and Apollo happens to stumble across it and ends up meeting the Wrights while he's still in high school. He becomes a regular at the bakery and is already close to them by the time "Shadi Smith's" murder comes around. And also, yes, sibling reveal right away--at least as soon as Phoenix realizes and can reveal it. As a treat. (Other reveals, though, I might put poor Apollo through on a delayed basis. Also as a treat, lmao, just not one for him.)
Fun Fact: I'm being redundant bc this is also in my a/n, but, Baker Phoenix lives rent-free in my brain because Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright was in fact the very first Ace Attorney game I ever played, technically, and Maya and Phoenix semi-brainwashed in that bakery was literally one of my first impressions of them. ........followed immediately by starting a let's play of Justice for All (which i watched through the first case, after which I was like oKAY fine maybe i DO need more context here, i should probably figure out what the actual first game is, and went back to start the series properly at the beginning hahaha). What do you MEAN i have a disproportionate fascination with amnesiac Phoenix, even if I have yet to finish and publish one of my myriad AUs that utilize stupid, unrealistic, plot convenient re-temporary amnesia?? Hm???? Idk what you're talking about. Also everyone who complains about 2-1 is wrong lmao it's objectively (okay subjectively is what i'm saying yes BUT objectively) such a funny place to start without knowing broad plot strokes, it's great. I both knew so much and absolutely shit-all nothing about Maya after PLvPW and 2-1, LMAO. god.
Miles POV, wrightworth. Angel/Demon AU, except I'm playing super fast and loose with the rules on that because all my knowledge of Christian-mythos comes from firstly and unknowingly the Chronicles of Narnia and more recently and cognizantly Lucifer (Netflix) and Good Omens. I know that's probably more or less what we're all doing with this kind of AU but still, I'm not even sure I want to refer to Heaven and Hell here, I'm kinda on the fence about maybe just keeping it all very vague? I also accidentally semi-worldbuilt more than i intended incidentally on account of "But Then How-Why Names If Angelic Creatures?"
Format-wise it would semi-follow gomens s1 where it's hopping through some meetings between long stretches but also a kind of pre- and post- Fall type of thing? And potentially Ă la Lucifer becoming, like, these are My Mortal Humans and i will be Spending Time With Them, screw you celestial duties, I'm making my own Free Will, etc. And i mean i guess Lucifer is also a crime procedural lmao maybe they still solve crimes in the end too.
Fun Fact: I didn't want to do the original prompt for several reasons, and sure fuck jkr is one of them but even before I knew about her I still wasn't really the biggest hp person in the first place? So i wouldn't know/don't remember at all the way it works without having to do the specific research and i...don't want to haha. Hence. And I know the prompt seems to be using it loosely / might just be borrowing the word and not actually referencing hp specifically but tbh either way human-animal shifter things just in general I can be somewhat picky about haha. (Okay okay plus full disclosure the ONLY idea I have for this sort of thing actually ties into my day-3-dark-academia-extended-au-verse and i COULD make my life simpler by just connecting the two days but Heh who would I be if I simplified things for myself... *sigh*) All that to say: I saw "wings" on the wild card list and I thought, ooh, well that's still sort of a related concept! Let's tag that one in! So it's still kind of day 12 prompt-adjacent, if you squint.
13. Found Footage - incomplete (planned/outlined)
Video Transcript POV? Is that a thing? Possibly capped by a little Phoenix POV (but i don't want that to get too long), wrightworth. Larry's new girlfriend of the month bakes weed brownies and Larry does not realize this and swings by the Wrights' apartment to beg some kind of help off Phoenix and forgets the whole tray there somehow (because it's Larry) and they leave to deal with Larry's thing and by the time they figure the brownies out, in some twist of fate Miles and Trucy have been hanging out (last minute babysitter/adult supervision? but she's at the very very least 14 or 15 here and most likely older, and Nick clearly isn't the most strict about like uhhh supervision in general lol sooo idk. he's helping her with a project or smth. it doesn't really actually matter; he's THERE, that's the important thing.)
The point I'm very clearly getting at is they accidentally get incredibly high (not dangerously so because I'm not going that far haha but also, neither of them has actually been high before, so they are Affected) before Phoenix finds out what was in the brownies and tries to warn Trucy and hurry home to like, dispose of them or at least put a warning label on them or whatever, but he is too late lol. By a lot. Definitely an underage drugs tag on this bad boy because it's definitely sometime 18-or-earlier for Trucy, let alone 21. (idk about other places but as a Californian I can tell you Japanifornia "LA" could theoretically have it legalized at 21 for anyone (like alcohol) and 18 with Dr's permission--which Trucy definitely does not have in this AU lol.)
Basically, Phoenix grabs Trucy's phone to get photo evidence so he can let them never live this down (after making sure they're okay lmao), but he ofc doesn't get technology so he doesn't realize he leaves the phone still recording when Trucy asks him for something / needs his help, so the recording just keeps going and captures a lot of tomfoolery and eventually some inebriated-to-Extremely-sober Feelings-Adjacent confessions (or maybe more like allusions). Idk, this was actually a fic I thought of before August and wanted to use as an excuse to try a Weird Format for fun, but then i saw this was a prompt on the list and...well.
Fun Fact: Cannabis was legalized in California on November 8, 2016 (the first election I could vote in!!! ......uh, rip. lol. but yeah babey I helped legalize weed at least!! gotta remember the positives), which means it was legal right in time for Miles' case(s) / Turnabout Goodbyes!!! Yay!! I mean, I suppose that's genuinely seriously one way to try to mitigate nightmares and manage insomnia--not that I think Miles Edgeworth would ever deign stoop so low as to use an aid to manage his severe PTSD and trauma symptoms, psshaw, who do you take him for? (Get these people some help lol. They all need so much therapy.)
So I've been reading a lot (a LOT) of isekai and/or revenge reincarnation romance fantasy manhwas lately (like, oh, too many, hahaha. they're quite good and they're VERY popular in webcomics at the moment.)
Soooo. Soft pitch: Apollo already gets slapped into so many wild backstories he's constantly trying to dodge in an effort to be just a Normal Guy, he's honestly, like, the PERFECT protagonist for one of these lmao. And tell me Kristoph doesn't make a perfect "Upstanding Duke" kind of persona, and Klavier couldn't be the "wild rake" younger brother no one expects much from, and all I'm saying is it wouldn't be that hard to contrive a reason Apollo tries to get Klavier to agree to a contract marriage the way all these stories go, lol. And also, something something, Apollo from the "real world" is an orphan/has an absent family (also like so many of these manhwa protagonists, lol) but then he gets to actually have one in his second life!! I'm such a sucker for that shit.
Slightly harder pitch, and the reason I did not let myself actually start writing anything (...yet): so what if the actual plot of the "original romance novel" Apollo is familiar with from the "real world (Earth)" is actually about the slightly older generation and something something instead of admiring Phoenix as a defense attorney, it's just that he instead was Apollo's favorite "love interest" character (not, like, for himself, just the one he most liked to read about) in every way except what a blithering idiot he became when the author had him fall for the female lead--but BEFORE that, he's a cool information guild leader guy who seems like he's trying to work toward some way to improve conditions for commoners in the kingdom (but abruptly there are no more mentions of this after he gets involved with the lead, which is annoying). Aaaand... I guess what I'm saying is, Dahlia is the original female lead because she REALLY fits the whole White Lotus trope, and I'm thinking Klavier is the original male lead because A) hilarious, B) fits in with the idea there's more going on in the ACTUAL world Apollo ends up in that is written in such a way as to make things seem different in the novel (like, that Dahlia and Klavier are actually as nice as they seem and that the terrible things that happen around them are just the trials and tribulations of being main characters and not anything they're directly involved in). And Apollo, the character in the novel Apollo, is an adopted prince of Khura'in, but he's the sickly younger prince and of course not actually of the royal bloodline (and also a man, considering Khura'in is matrilineal), so Rayfa and Nahyuta are the ones the public and other nobles actually know and care about and deal with.
But wait! As it so turns out, The Wright Anything Information Guild (I feel like the actual guild name CAN'T have their freaking name on it front and center lol but you get the idea) happens to know some other things that aren't really expanded on in the original novel, and might be key to preventing Apollo's death so he doesn't follow the path of the original story, and also idk maybe Apollo and Trucy are half-fae or something like that and instead of like Aw Yay Bracelet in this AU it's more of a secret Iron Shackle Tool That Will Hurt I Mean Totally-Definitely-Help Us Later (still, in a way, passed down to him by Thalassa, but more as, like... she's kind of a secret hostage and does not manage to hide pregnancy number one so Apollo's now also a secret hostage, but she manages to escape so they don't know about Trucy, only she didn't tell Apollo basically anything to "keep him as safe as possible" or w/e, and......)
Well, anyway. It got away from me before I even really wrote anything, that's all.
Trucy POV, gen. Apollo gets sick of very consistently always losing the card games they play at the Wright Anything Agency (usually and in the specific instance the fic starts, Bullshit/BS) and in a stroke of inspiration somehow ropes everyone into playing Among Us instead. ("What! It's still a game of trying to lie/trick everyone else--like you like!--but I actually stand a freaking chance, so we're playing this or I'm going home.") Yes. This is my Among Us AU. Hi. They play Among Us.
I'm justifying this one as prime AU territory however because A) Among Us has to exist in this universe, and even more pressingly, B) I found a way to force Phoenix to have--for at least a period of time if not moving forward in perpetuity--an actual smartphone instead of a Nokia-type brick cellphone. Which even under the wild but somehow plausible considering Ace Attorney circumstances I contrived, is just automatically a complete AU lmao.
Fun Fact: I am so mad this one wasn't just totally finished day-of, lol. Why I ever thought I could give myself run of an entire WAA 4-person conversation and NOT get instantly derailed is beyond me. (And I want to get the prosecutors there, too?? Someone take the characters away from me.) Anyway. No, I have not written ANY of the actual Among Us part yet. Sigh. Also I haven't personally played amogus since like, 2021? maybe? And I know (now) that it's been pretty updated since then, but, ehhh, I'm just gonna run off like, lockdown-era amogus rules and vibes, lol. If I can get to the game part.
16 - Hobby Drama - conceptualized
I'm going to go out of order this time to say:
Fun Fact: I have ALWAYS wanted to write a Reddit-style fic!!! I absolutely love them and I've read some REALLY, really good ones, so I've always wanted to try my hand at it.
So theoretically this is the perfect time to make that a reality and write a r/HobbyDrama subreddit fic, buuut I got stuck before starting because I'm torn on two possible routes to take it (I can easily foresee myself caving and just doing both lol).
- Option 1: Steel Samurai fandom discourse, always a fun/funny thing to think about, definitely would enjoy having Maya and Miles post some stuff for that.
- Option 2: courtroom law fandom discourse, because come ON, how are those galleries ALWAYS SO FULL. The little wiggling rabba-rabba onlookers have GOT to have investment in this shit. And why WOULDN'T they, honestly. I've seen those trials and I have, in fact, spent a Lot of time thinking about them, not that any posts I've made lately would reflect that in any way or anything. Like I know it's hard to tell, but if I can be invested in the Lawyers Fandom, who's to say the people in the courtrooms aren't????? And I LOVE an outsider POV fic actually, I think they're so fun.
So anyway. Reddit fic. You will be mine. Just as soon as I can hone my energy
And, what the hell, since it's so late now by the time I complete this "Heh This'll Be So Quick To Throw Together" post, I'll include today's, too:
AU where Daddy Hawthorne is like, 97% less shitty. And the Hawthornes have a flower shop instead of like a gemstone industry or whatever. And he takes both Dahlia and Iris with him instead of dumping one of his daughters at a fucking secluded mountain temple and seemingly forgetting about her forever.
On second thought, maybe what I actually mean is he's like 999% less shitty, lmfao.
Anyway, Iris POV, but Dahlia (while not a "nice" person by any stretch) is not pushed to such extremes or nearly as desperate as canon, so Valerie lives, Terry Fawles lives, Doug Swallow lives, and Dahlia gets to live a good life overall--because as much fun as I love using her as a villain, she's really such a product of the absolute worst circumstances and I really do find her interesting so I've been kind of wanting to explore her in a less cartoonishly evil light, haha. (Don't get me wrong, I do love the cartoonishly evil light too, but I like spicing things up sometimes.)
Like, she does (more) normal teen rebellion things ("Look at my inappropriately older boyfriend, Dad" "I'm going to talk my way out of speeding tickets and petty shoplifting as a bid for attention" etc.) and she still totally orders Iris around and Iris still totally does whatever she asks very much to her own detriment and has to learn to break away and be her own person.
Fun Fact: I have a very passionate love for Iris/Adrian Andrews. Is that. Um. Is that a ship anyone else has ever considered before? Is that just me? I'm not sure but very possibly I'll just make this a rarepair fic as a treat, for me alone, teehee. (Like... it's about the becoming the master of your own destiny it's about breaking out of codependent cycles it's about how I genuinely honestly think they'd be each other's type and have chemistry even though they've obviously never interacted lmao... idk what to tell you.)
AND THATS MY AU-GUST UPDATE POST!!!
If you made it this far, take a sprinkle of my undying affection, and may you be blessed with AU inspiration if you so desire it!! (If you do not desire it, hopefully you are not cursed with it. I do not take refunds if you are. Sorry.)
Wish me luck with completing some more fics soon!!! Unfortunately weekends are actually my least free time because I work the most and the earliest hours so I have less time and am more tired, but also on Wednesday I'm leaving for a family vacation, which will either be the BEST thing to happen in regards to AU-gust or the WORST thing lmfao. If nothing else I have 2 flights, and I actually Love writing on an airplane, so fingers crossed for it being Good. <3
EDIT: Now with part 2 for the rest of the month here!
OKAY so i really intended to use AU-gust as an incentive to be BETTER about using this blog / tumblr in general for fic-writing-related purposes but instead i underestimated the massive appeal figuring out AU puzzles always has for me and the result has been i posted exactly ONE thing here for the 1st and absolutely nothing else. rip.
i'm not entirely sure who this is for other than me at this point lol but i figured since the past few days i haven't been able to finish any new complete works, why not do like a WIP update? an "August is halfway over, here's how it's going" post?
so it's no complete works, but at the very least, for brief descriptions of the many, many, many AUs-and-counting the prompt list has spawned...
actually dammit for piece of mind i'll just make a clean post lol ignore the rambling that will totally show Under the real post on the blog LOL it's fine i need to just get the rambling out of the way somewhere. heave-ho. etc.
We present to you, the AU-gust 2024 prompt list! đ
What is AU-gust? It stands for Alternate Universe August, and it is a creative challenge for everyone. Writers, artists, fans; anyone can join! Be sure to check out our FAQ for more answers! Join us on Twitter, AO3, Discord and under the tags #au gust and #au gust 2024.
Special thanks to @yaoyorozoops for creating our wonderful graphics!
Well. Miaâs really off to a rocking start, here.
Mr. Grossbergâs correct, of course, in his little defendantâs lobby pep talkâshe shouldnât let the client see her like this, but she canât help her frown or involuntarily biting her lip all the same. What the hell is a âpokey-monâ? Is that somehow relevant to the case? Did she miss something important in the court record, orâ
âEr, you know what, never mind,â Doug Swellow says hurriedly, looking at her in concernâgreat, Mia, really great work, way to keep the client calm and assured. âI just meant, itâs actually Swallow, not Swellow. LikeâŠhuh, actually. Like the bird, I guessâjust, the real one and not the âmon, yâknow?â
MiaâŠreally doesnât know. Sheâs also not sure if several of those words were even words.
âA-hem,â Grossberg coughs pointedly. âThat aside, Mr. Swallow, rest assured, youâre in good hands.â
âRight,â Mia says, possibly a little too grateful for the save, âI promise, if youâre truly innocent, I will do everything I possibly can to save you!â
âUhh,â Doug replies, leaning back as far as he can, âyeah, great. Would you mind, maybe, letting go of my jacket? Thanks.â
Right, right, right, itâs totally alright. Mr. Swellowâer, that is, Swallowâis the one on trial, and Miaâs got this. She knows what she has to do, and she can totally get through this and thereâs no reason to be nervous at all. Once allâs said and done, sheâll be able to rest easy, sheâll be able to tell Diego he can rest easy, and Doug here will be able to rest easy, tooâŠand preferably wonât be looking at her with such a clear questioning of the wisdom of his decision to agree to let her take over his defense from Mr. Grossberg anymore.
On the bright side, things can only go up from here.
April 11, 10:12 AM
District Court
Courtroom No. 2
Things go downhill very, very quickly.
Itâs easy enough to answer the courtâs first few questions: the defense is ready; the cause of death was poisoning; the motive, the âbad bloodâ between the parties involved, was, of course, Dahlia Hawthorne, the victimâs girlfriend and the defendantâs ex. Mia knows all that, even if itâs insulting to be treated like such a rookie she had to be asked the basics of the case at allâeven more so that Winston âRookie Killerâ Payne was the one so smugly leading the discussion.
âŠEven more so, that, maybe, she really had been freaking out enough that some of the fundamental basics of court had fled her mind. Only for a moment, of course! But it still stings that Prosecutor Payneâs annoying needling actually helped her in any way.
Even then, itâs one thing to be treated like a rookie who doesnât know the basics of the case (even if she had been furiously catching up on everything in the court record as the trial began). Itâs another thing entirely for all of the evidence to stack up so quickly and concisely to implicate her client.
Itâs another thing entirely to have to cross-examine her right off the bat.
As if that demure, crocodile grin wasnât bad enough, the crocodile tears Dahlia Hawhorne hits the court with as soon as she steps on the stand are genuinely nauseating. Then again, maybe Miaâs the only one who thinks soâthe judge and Prosecutor Payne are clearly charmed, and even Grossberg murmurs, âPoor girl,â from Miaâs side, despite the sharp elbow jab he receives in response.
In fairness, she would be, if Mia werenât positive that not even an ounce of her so-sad sympathy-sculpting sorrow is sincere. If Mia werenât sure that this woman is the one behind this whole thing, to begin with.
If Dahlia Hawthorne werenât so clearly trying to get away with poisoning someone again.
Mia almost misses it, but someone scoffs as Hawthorne launches into her latest round of tearful, sobbing âtestimonyâ (more accurately: accusation)ââI thought Dougie was better than this, how could he let his jealousy get the best of him, what did poor Feenie ever do to deserve this?!ââand when Mia surreptitiously glances askance to find the source, she finds the only other face in the room darkened with clear disdain rather than bleeding sympathy is her clientâs.
So maybe thereâs hope, then. Maybe despite having dated her in the past, Doug Swallow actually sees this megalomaniac for who she really is. It would certainly be a breath of fresh air, and itâs all the second wind she needs to reaffirm she has to prove this manâs innocence, however she can.
Sheâll make sure he walks free, and sheâll make sure to get justice for the victimâfor all of Hawthorneâs victims.
As for the cross-examination at handâŠ
Hawthorne sniffles piteously as she finally answers the question Payne had actually asked her: âWe had dinner plans, so thatâs why I went to Feenieâs place to meet up, andâ! Oh, itâs too horrible!â She punctuates it with some more sobbing, but Mia isnât deterred.
On the contrary, she calls, âHold it! When you say âitâs too horrible,â youâre referring toâŠ?â
âF-finding his body, of course,â Hawthorne sobs, âhe was just lying there, and, oh, poor Feenieâ!â
âWitness,â Mia interrupts, âwe are looking for facts with your testimony. We donât needââ
âMs. Fey, have a heart! Canât you see the poor girl is in mourning? I canât even imagine how hard this must all be for you, sweetie; please, take your time,â Payne cries.
Unfortunately, the judge all too readily agrees that she is, somehow, the one in the wrong here, and Mia is forced to try a slightly less aggressive approach.
âUrghâ! Okay. Fine. Then, Ms. Hawthorne, when you say you had dinner plans, when exactly were you supposed to meet?â
Altogether, itâs, to put it bluntly, a slog. Dancing around Hawthorneâs lies and the judge and Payneâs incessant gooey-eyed protectiveness of her is infuriating, but eventually, they can put together something of a timeline.
The problem is, Doug Swallow was witnessed exiting the victimâs building around 4 PMâand not just by Hawthorne, but corroborated by a bunch of Art Department students who knew the victim as well (not that he would have been hard to identify, considering his obnoxious sweater)âand Hawthorne herself claims to have entered it later at around 5:30, at which point other students heard her scream and someone eventually called 911 at exactly 5:34, which would seem to line up perfectly.
Hawthorne is vague about why she would have been hanging around the victimâs building at 4 if she wasnât going to go in until later, but Mia isnât able to press her about it very hard before His Honor stops her from âgoing too farâ for something not particularly related to the case.
In any event, when Payne calls the defendant to the stand to testify himself, Mia meets his eyes and finds again a kinship to her own feelings about Hawthorne, and she can definitively state that the defense has no objections. Besides, Swallow is innocent.
All she has to do is prove it.
April 11, 12:17 AM
District Court
Courtroom No. 2
âProving itâ is proving difficult.
Itâs news to Mia that theyâd found the defendantâs fingerprints on the victimâs bottle of cold medicineâeven when the judge calls for a 20 minute recess following the change of witness and this revelation, and she takes the opportunity to grill him about it, he just laughs humorlessly and sits heavily on the couch with his head in his hands, saying, âIâm fucked. She got me.â
Sheâs hoping getting back in the courtroom will make her client more forthcoming, but he clearly doesnât want to tell them what actually happened.
âWhatâs the point?â Swallow asks, smiling bitterly. âNo one would ever believe me.â
âMr. Swallow,â Mia implores, or perhaps begs, with how desperate she feels, âI swear to you, I believe in you. I believe in your innocence, and I want to help prove it. But I canât do that unless you tell me what happened. Please.â
He stares her down for a moment. âI really donât think youâre going to like what I have to say.â
âThatâs fine. I donât have to like it, I just need to know what really happened. Ifâif you want me to getâthe person who did thisâand to get due justice for you and Mr. Wright, I need to know.â
Doug sighs. âThat poor sucker. He never knew what hit him⊠Okay. Okay, fine. Iâll tell you, butâŠdonât blame me if you have to eat your words.â
Mia wishes she could say she wasnât worried about it, but she has no idea what to expect. Indeed, she doesnât expect what he tells them, but itâs not as bad as she feared. That doesnât make it good, butâŠ
âI called him out to talkâPhoenix Wright, I mean. We were supposed to meet at 2:45 PM after class behind the Pharmacology Building. I was there on time, but he never showed. I waited around for a while by myself, but eventually I figured he wasnât coming and left. IâŠgot worried, later, andâŠthatâs why I went to his place. The medicine bottleâŠthatâŠwasnât my fault.â
Sure, thereâs more than enough clearly wrong with that, but itâs also something to work with.
âWhat did you want to talk to him about?â
âOh. IâŠwell, to be honest, I wanted to warn him about Dahlia.â
ââWarnâ him? How so?â Mia presses, hoping she doesnât sound too eager.
âSheâsâŠâ he hesitates, eyeing the judge mistrustfully, âsheâs not the person she seems like she is. There wereâŠthere were a couple ofâŠthefts. In the labs, in the pharmacology department.â
âThefts of what?â Mia prompts.
ââŠDeadly poison. Once the night before the incident, and once eight months ago.â
Eight months ago! Finally, finally.
Swallow continues, âI wanted to warn that guyâMr. Wrightâjust in case. I was worried becauseâŠDahlia had come to the lab both times. She was the only one who could have stolen it! I have no idea what she was doing with it, butâŠwell. Rather, I had no idea. Now that itâs come to this, thoughâŠI feel like itâs pretty clear.â
Mia can barely hear the murmur of the gallery over the pounding in her own ears. Dahlia Hawthorne stole deadly poison from the pharmacology lab eight months ago. Itâs exactly what sheâs been waiting for.
Before she gets ahead of herself, she needs to make sure she gets everything she can out of this cross-examination, though.
The judge calls for order, and Mia takes a deep breath of her own.
âThen, Mr. Swallow,â she prompts, âwhen you say you were worried about the defendant and went looking for him at his place, you meanâŠ?â
âHonestly, I didnât expect the guy to end up dead! I justâŠwhen he told me heâd be there at the meeting time, he sounded pretty set on coming. I guess I was more worried Dahlia had gotten to him firstâer, well, not like⊠Like, that sheâd told him not to talk to me, yâknow.â
âAnd when you arrived at Mr. Wrightâs room, what happened?â
âI knocked, but no answer. His neighbor saw me in the hall and told me heâd tried to go out earlier but his cold had apparently gotten worse and he barely made it to the end of the hallway before some of the other students had to take him back.â
âDid they see Ms. Hawthorne?â
âIâŠdidnât ask, sorry. I should have. But, I kind of doubt itâŠâ
âThatâs okay,â Mia says. Thereâs only one last thing she really needs to follow up on, then. âMr. Swallow. When you said the medicine bottle âwasnât your fault,â what did you mean by that?â
He lets out a heavy breath, like maybe heâs been expecting this all along. âRight. Well. That would be becauseâŠâ
His hesitation lasts long enough Mia has to prompt, âBecause?â
âBecause,â Swallow sighs, âI didnât end up seeing Phoenix Wright at all that day, but I did run into Dahlia Hawthorne.â
The judge has to call for order. When things have quieted down again, Mia has to reign in her own excitement. Sheâs so close. She can almost taste it.
âAnd when was that?â Mia asks, âWhat happened then?â
âIt was while I was waiting for Mr. Wright. She passed by the Pharmacology DepartmentâŠand ran into me, literally. She bumped into meâI thought because our umbrellas had been obscuring us from each other, and sheâd had headphones on, butâŠâ
âYou donât think that anymore?â
He laughs harshly. âYeah, not really. She fell over when she bumped me, both our umbrellas went flyingâŠand she dropped some other stuff sheâd been carrying. Including a bottle of Coldkiller XâŠwhich I stupidly picked up for her. I wouldnât be surprised if that was literally the whole reason she approached me in the first place.â
Prosecutor Payne sneers, âHah! How convenient! Your Honor, the witness is clearly lying through his teeth to cover his tracks!â
Miaâs pretty sure Swallow mutters, âThatâs what I was afraid of,â but she doesnât have time for that.
She has to convince the judge that her client is telling the truth. And⊠She thumbs the corner of the newspaper clipping in her pocket. She has to find a way to connect this to Diegoâs poisoning. She has to.
She is so, so close.
April 11, 2:59 PM
District Court
Defendant Lobby No. 3
She never gets close.
There just isnât any evidence. She canât prove Dahlia Hawthorne stole the poison from the lab, and all she has is Dougâs word that she was ever there at all. No surveillance cameras, no entry or exit logs, no nothing.
She canât prove it.
She can, and does, however, prove Doug Swallowâs innocence. The words âNot Guiltyâ have never sounded so bitter. Itâs a fluke, honestly. Most of the end of the trial is a blur. It turns out Swallow has an airtight alibi that somehow theyâve all missed. It turns out, by some miracle, Swallow never had the opportunity to take the specific poison that was used, that he was always with at least one other person in the lab, thatâhonestly, even if she only just proved it all, she barely remembers the specifics; itâs just, it doesnât really matter.
It doesnât matter, because Mia fails. She couldnât prove she stabbed Valerie Hawthorne, she couldnât prove she pressured Terry Fawles into taking poison to silence himself for her, and.
She canât prove Dahlia Hawthorne murdered Phoenix Wright.
She still canât prove Dahlia Hawthorne poisoned Diego.
The insidious tinkling of Hawthorneâs smug laughter chases Mia out of the courtroom. She was honestly ready to lay everything on the line just for a chance to bring Dahlia to justice, even a very, very slim one, but Mr. Grossberg had stopped her before sheâd pressed hard enough to lose her badge entirely. Heâd had a point, she supposes. If she loses her badge, sheâs that much further from being able to do anything about any of this. If she loses her badge, sheâs that much further from her original goal, from finding the man who ruined her mother and her village and bringing him to justice, too.
But it hurts.
Diego once told her a lawyer can only cry when itâs all over.
But fuck, she wants to cry. She wants to scream and bitch and moan and curse until her throat is raw, too, but she really, really wants to cry.
She wonât. Heâs right. She still has work to do. But that doesnât erase the want.
Still. Even if thereâs a dark, heavy pit in her stomach, even if this is somehow nearly as bad as the worst day of her life, when sheâd had to watch her first client die on the stand before her very eyes, she still has a duty to her current client.
She forces the brightest smile she can muster.
It might not be enough, but itâs something. She has to try. It can be the darkest hour, and she still has to try. She couldnât live with herself otherwise.
âCongratulations, Mr. Swallow,â Mia manages, turning to him. Smiling.
âYes, congratulations!â Grossberg agrees, clapping him lightly on the shoulder. Miaâs boss is undoubtedly faring better than she is, but she can tell heâs far from unphased. Still, she appreciates that heâs able to muster a little more enthusiasmâDoug deserves it from somewhere, at least, and it sure as hell isnât going to get there from Mia.
âThanks,â Swallow says. He smiles back, although Mia can tell heâs feeling a much more real sense of relief at his acquittal than she is. He winces a little, like maybe he can tell as well. âIâmâŠreally sorry I didnât have anything else to help prove it was her.â
âNo, no, thatâs⊠You have nothing to apologize for,â Mia replies honestly. âIf anything, I really need to thank you. Even just knowing where the poison was fromâŠthatâs a great clue. Really.â
Swallow looks like maybe he canât decide if sheâs just being nice about that or not, but if he has doubts he doesnât say anything about them.
Mr. Grossberg asks, âWhat will you do now?â
The question reminds Miaâshe feels terrible sheâd forgotten to even think about it, frankly. She gasps, âShitâsorry, Mr. Swallow. ButâI donât think sheâs going to just forget about this. You might still be in dangerââ
âAh,â Swallow says, not sounding particularly surprised, âyeah, IâŠwas kinda thinking the same thing. Then again, if anything happens to me now, it seems like itâd be pretty obvious, so maybe⊠Well, either way, this is my last year. I graduate in a couple months. Maybe Iâll be a little extra paranoid during that time, but, hey, yâknow. I got falsely accused of murder, and all. I donât think my classmates will find it all that weird if I insist on taking a buddy with me everywhere.â
Itâs not a terrible planâit is, in fact, an exponentially better plan than anything Mia had come up with, which was a big fat nothing, because sheâd been so clouded by her dark, bitter disappointment and rage that sheâd let Dahlia Hawthorne get away again.
Grossberg seems to agree, for whatever thatâs worth, because he says, âThat sounds like a wise course of action, but still, be careful out there, my boy.â
Actually, Grossberg looks a little like heâs thinking about how he might need to watch his own back, tooâwhich, in all fairness, is absolutely true.
âYeah,â Doug agrees, shoving his hands in the pockets of his leather jacket. âYou too. You knowâŠitâs a shame, really.â
âWhat is?â Mia asks. Which specific shame are we talking, here? There are oh-so-many to choose from.
Doug is looking at the doors to the courtroom like he hasnât quite caught up with the fact he doesnât have to go back into it yet. âItâs a shame about Phoenix Wright, I mean.â
âOh,â Mia says, feeling stupid. Obviously. And it is a shame. Sheâs feeling keenly her own shame at not being able to catch his killer.
âYeah. He must haveâI mean, they spent so much time together, you know? He had to have known something elseâmaybe, if only you could ask him, you know? I mean, donât get me wrong, the guy seemed like a total simp, but still. You canât spend that much of your time with someone and never give anything away, right? Or pick up on something? He must have known something that could have helped prove it. Then again, I guess thatâs probably why heâs, you knowâŠâ
âYâŠyeah,â Mia says faintly.
Her mind is whirling, overloaded, her processing running slowly. Sheâs stuck onâif only you could ask him.
If onlyâŠthere was a wayâŠto ask someoneâŠsomeone deadâ
âWell,â Grossberg is saying regretfully, âif only that were possible, and we might not even need lawyers working court cases after all. Imagine, if you could just ask every victim about what happened. Youâll put us out of a job, Mr. Swallow!â
The two men laugh, albeit more than a little lackluster, not as if itâs something particularly funny per se but more like the only thing you can do about something so ridiculous, so idealistic, so impossible, is in fact to laugh at the mere suggestion of it.
Mia feels like laughing, too, but maybe not in the same way.
April 11, 4:56 PM
RosAnzerusu
Mia Feyâs Apartment
Mia doesnât laugh until sheâs safely home, and, importantly, alone.
She thinks she said goodbye to them both, at some point. Sheâs pretty sure they all went their separate ways, considering sheâs definitely by herself, now. Sheâs also pretty sure Grossberg dropped her off at her apartment, not being subtle about doing it because he was worried about letting her walk or take the bus alone after what just happened. She hopes she thanked him. She appreciates it, and itâs not his fault sheâs got something else on her mind. It wonât exactly be fun to go back to the office on Monday, but she doesnât think itâll be completely suffocating, either.
Still, she laughs.
Itâs, frankly, a terrible idea.
The last time anyone tried it for this specific purpose, Miaâs mom fucking vanished into the ether because of how utterly terribly it went, leaving not only Mia but also her 10-years-younger sister to fend for themselves in the downright ravenous jungle of the power struggle vacuum she left behind for them.
Then again, last time, it had been to name the killer, not to find evidence to implicate an already known killer. So maybe not, technically, this specific purpose.
Itâs still a bad idea. Itâs still such a bad idea.
Mia doesnât realize sheâs picked up her phone until itâs already ringing, and by then it would be far more cruel to hang up first.
âSis!â comes the phone-distorted young voice to prove her right in no time at all. âWhatâs up?! You never call on Fridays!â
Even just hearing Mayaâs voice is enough to make things seem less bleak. Mia hadnât realized she needed that right now.
Mia canât help but chuckle, though she hopes itâs a little less manic than the kind of cackling sheâd been doing as she slid down her apartment door as soon as it closed behind her. âHey, Maya.â
âIâ Oh, oops, hang on,â Maya says, and then, slightly muffled: âNo, itâs fine, Aunt Morgan, itâs just Mia! Yeah, Iâ Yeah, I know, donât worry!â and then once more in her normal voice: âSo! Hi! Whatâs goinâ on?â
Well, if only that werenât such a loaded question. âJust got home from a trial.â
âOh, well, thatâs prettyâ Wait, what?! Like a trial in court?! I thought you didnât want to do those anymore? You never mentioned you were going back! What gives?â
Mia canât completely hold back her sigh. She canât unload all of this on Maya, sheâs still so youngâonly fourteen. Mia is the older one; sheâs the only truly loving, reliable family Maya has left in the world. Itâs too much of a burden to share with her. Which is exactly why Mia should never have even remotely entertained the idea in the first place, and why she definitely shouldnât have called, andâ
âHelloooo? Mia? You still there?â
âYeah, Iâmâ Iâm still here, Maya.â And then Mia stops there. And then Mia stops there and doesnât continue because if she lets herself continue sheâs going to say something stupid like: âHey, Maya? How would you feel about coming for a visit? Maybe stay with me over the weekend, orâŠ?â
Miaâs so busy refraining from smashing her face into her own door frame for her complete lack of self control, she almost doesnât notice how unexpectedly lengthy the pause is before Maya replies.
She doesnât have time to question it before Maya is saying, breathless and somehow both trepidatious and excited at the same time, ââŠYou really mean it? Me come there? The whole weekend?!â
Thereâs too much jumbled around in Miaâs head to fully appreciate what it means that her sister doesnât immediately believe she could really be inviting her over to her place. She canât think about that, too. Not right now.
So she laughs a little (and no one can see her if itâs a bit helpless) and repeats, âYes, Maya, the whole weekend. Unless you get sick of me, I guess.â
âNo!â Maya shouts, maybe a little too quick and a little too loud. âNo, I mean, thatâsâ Of course I wanna come! I justâ I mean, I thought youâd be calling for a favor, or something. Haha.â
âAh,â Mia says, wincing. âWellâŠâ
âOh,â Maya says, though she recovers her lighthearted tone much faster this time, âWhat, you need a housesitter or something, Sis? For shame, using your one and only little sister for manual child laborâŠâ
âHa-ha,â Mia replies flatly. âNot that kind of favor.â
In fact, if she can keep a hold of herself and her own better judgment, she might not ask any kind of favor at all. Thatâs what she knows she should do, at least.
OnlyâŠDiego. Only: Mr. Fawles, and Valerie Hawthorne, and Mr. Wright.
âOh yeah? What kind of favor, then?â
Mia should just let it go. In all likelihood, he wonât react well to the whole thing, anyway. In all likelihood, he wonât be able to give a coherent answer, heâll freak out, heâll want nothing to do with them, heâllâany number of things. A million ways it could all go very, very wrong. Not to mentionâbringing Maya here? Now? Right after she challenged Dahlia Hawthorne again in such a direct way?
Mia would never forgive herself if she got her sister involved in something dangerousâand, well. This particular thing already has at least four bodies in its wakeâthree cold, one warm but unmoving.
Mia canât do this. She canâtâ
She canât. She canât let her go. What will she do when the next victim appears? When she could have tried something more to stop her?
âWellâŠâ How to say this. In the end, Mia decides: âThereâs someone Iâd like you to meet, if youâre willing, Maya.â
And Maya answers, âOh yeah? Sounds easy! Are they cool?â
âYou know? I have no idea.â
âHuh? You mean itâs not someone you know?â
âNot really,â Mia laughs, âno. Want to find out together?â
âI,â says Maya, âhave absolutely no idea what youâre talking about, but do you even have to ask? Of course! Which train do I take?â
If Mia were smart, if she were responsible, sheâd call the whole thing off now.
So of course, Mia asks, âWhenâs the next one leave?â
And honestly, it might all be worth it just to hear Mayaâs delighted laugh in response and to know, if nothing else, at least sheâll get to see her sisterâs bright face soon.
It might.
Hopefully, sheâs right to wager that it will be.
I haven't done any before, but I'd definitely be open to it!!
Please feel free to message me or send another ask if you're interested and I'd be down to talk about it!
(To be perfectly honest with you, if its for a fandom I already like and the idea interests me even a little, most things I'd be happy to write for free if you just gave me a concrete prompt or such though. I am not above using validation to fuel my writing process and in fact love direction bc I am horrendously indecisive. My one caveat is i cannot necessarily in good conscience promise anything concrete in terms of turnaround time haha but I'll do my best!)
