Behold, my Genklintville headcanons and other tidbits
Yeah, turns out I ship two polycules in The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles. One is Asobaroryuu, and the other is this. I've honestly got a healthy number of headcanons for each, but I'll focus on this one for now. With that said, albeit probably not very well organized, on to the listing!
Genshin and his wife, Sayaka, were a failed arranged marriage romance. They were friends, but really couldn't bring themselves to be more than that even after having Kazuma. Even if they both loved their son to pieces, the lack of proper closeness between one another was a small point of tension that they had to hide from their son.
It would be considered massively scandalous and against most teachings of bushido for a man from a samurai family like Genshin to feel or act on any sort of need for connection, let alone via relations with foreigners. But before he left for Great Britain, Sayaka decided those taboos didn't mean shit to her, and ensured he'd leave knowing he had her blessing if he finally found someone to love him as he deserved.
Klint's prone to switching into this Julius Novachrono-level geek mode when it comes to swords; especially swords that aren't commonly found in the West. So when Genshin first met Klint, the first thing out of Klint's mouth was asking about Karuma. Luckily, this works in his favor, as the best way to befriend and bond with a samurai is talking about their beloved ancestral sword.
In the first attack on Klint that Genshin was involved in, he managed to break some of the attackers' weapons in the ensuing fight along with getting in the usual hits on the guys themselves. Somehow, the thugs themselves didn't learn all that quickly that taking on Genshin would mean losing their own blades against Karuma. As far as Klint was concerned, though, this just made Genshin his new sparring partner.
The maiden name of Klint's wife is Adelia Baskerville, known as the Bloom of the Baskervilles. She's all about tea blends, fusses over all of her boys (Klint, Genshin, and even Barok), adores animals, and first met Klint through a fateful encounter involving a runaway Balmung in a park.
Speaking of Balmung, Genshin's first meeting with the giant deerhound mix was also the first time he was brought to the Van Zieks manor for an introductory spar with Klint. Balmung knocked Genshin off his feet the second the door was opened and was inexplicably very attached to him from that point on. Don't worry; he warmed up to the big goober fairly quickly.
By the way, there are actually a bunch of hunting dogs on the Van Zieks estate. Balmung is just Klint's favorite since he's the only one he personally raised from puppyhood.
That being said, Adelia has an unexpected Mama Bear streak that EVERYONE forgets about. If you say/do anything that she reacts to with anything less than a smile, you should know you divinely fucked up and should absolutely start running. Not from the guys, though. No, not when the rest of the hunting dogs arguably listen to her more than her own husband, and she's also more willing to pull out the "sic" command on purpose than Klint.
Adelia has gone out into a dark London night alone several times because her boys didn't come home after getting attacked. Usually armed with her dogs and sometimes a pistol for good measure. It's the best way to track down where they are and avoid running into trouble herself.
As far as courtroom behavior, Klint is pompous and arrogant and unleashes all kinds of playful jabs at the Defense (i.e. Klavier-adjacent attitude, Simon-level snark). Private life is where he's a bit more mellow, especially with Adelia.
Klint's courtship with Adelia was actually fairly consensual for the time. By that point, he was already the lord of his household and decided to use his own status to take things at their own pace, allowing them to fall for each other before any marriage arrangements were discussed.
Genshin and Klint are a role-reversal of Kazuma and Barok. That is to say, where Kazuma is expected to be the one who annoys Barok in post-canon, Klint was the one who would annoy Genshin in pre-canon.
I might add more in the future, but this is plenty for now. Hope you enjoy!
EDIT: Here are a couple more
It's honestly not hard for Klint or Adelia to fall in love with Genshin. After several of his visits to the manor and even overnight stays, the two wind up confiding in each other about their attraction to him.
The van Zieks family hasn't had any religious affiliation for quite some time. If you ask them about their religion, you won't get anything concrete out of them. They're actually the closest you'll get to modern-day atheists. Among other nobles, they're the detested godless family, but they're legally and morally more respectable than every corrupt noble who wears a cross around their neck.
This is partly due to their legacy of work in the law and just generally disliking how various religious castes tends to mistreat certain people who've done nothing to warrant it, sometimes to the extent of twisting the law to their whims and letting actual criminals in the clergy get away with severe crimes.
The beginning of the non-platonic relationship between Genshin and the nobles happened entirely by accident. They were celebrating a hard-fought win with a really difficult case at the manor and wound up drinking to the point they all blacked out. Genshin winds up getting the full "Morning After" treatment the next day.
Genshin is very starved for affection and touch. He doesn't even realize what's going on with him when being held by his newfound lovers makes him weirdly sleepy and even subconsciously clingy. At the same time, however, the shame and internalized homophobia hits him hard, even while Klint and Adelia reassure him that there's no need to beat himself up over it.
By the way, Adelia's hair when it's down is basically the exact same as that of her daughter. Coral pink, very curly, and kinda puffed out. Klint and Genshin both admit that her hair looks better when it isn't done up into her usual tight bun.
