#teneiworth

[salamanderoddity]

Realized i haven't posted my work for @attorneyassistant exchange that i drew... a long time ago @_@ it was fun to draw for a very rare pairing! I think i had to manually type the ship tag on ao3 because it didn't exist. I have a soft spot for Rhoda's character so i wanted to do her justice.

[fraeuleintaka]

It's so funny to imagine when Miles gets together with either Shi-Long or Rhoda how stories about how they first met would be like:

"Oh yeah, I accused him of murder and tied him to a chair. But it's fine, I helped him investigate the case right after. Yes, I'm a professional flight attendant, why do you ask?"

"Yeah, he got kidnapped and I just... didn't help him in any way. Hm? Oh, he called me to ask for help but I just left him there and told him that I would maybe consider rescuing him at some distant point in the future when I wasn't busy doing something else. Oh and I also mocked him on top of that."

Fond memories!~

[fraeuleintaka]

What totally gets me about this interaction is how Miles just did it immediately without any hesitation! Rhoda simply asks him and Miles just does what she asked. That's the only thing she had to do to get him to pinky-swear. I love them!

[fraeuleintaka]

It's striking how Miles just yells at the other passengers and then immediately switches to being super polite to Rhoda. Even though she was the one who first accused him of murder! From how he acts around her he also really seems to mean that her assumption was understandable and that he doesn't hold it against her, it's not just him being polite on the surface. He can be so nice if he wants to!

[fraeuleintaka]

Ah, the sweet goodbye 💖 That's not gonna stop me from imagining them meeting again though!

And this is such a beatiful final interaction! Thanking each other so sincerely, you really feel the appreciation from both. And I simply love that Rhoda gifts Miles something so dear to her heart! To carry with him and help him wherever he goes and maybe remind him of her. And Miles' reaction is so cute! She doesn't insist on it if he doesn't want it but Miles doesn't want to refuse her or hurt her feelings so he just accepts. (And there's that "lady" again! Don't tell her that he uses it to deliver ransom money in the very next case. On the other hand he willingly goes out in public with it so... win?) And Rhoda gives her first genuine open smile in this case! (AA loves to overuse that trope but Rhoda's is honestly one of my favourite instances of this. It works so well in comparison to her "fake" professional smiles before.) Miles, too, looks anything but opposed to seeing her again and given how often he goes on business trips it's not that implausible either. Or they exchanged numbers and stay in contact. I like to think they do.

[fraeuleintaka]

It's interesting to me that Rhoda's arrest gets such an emotional reaction from Miles. The few times wrong people actually get arrested in the Investigations games (until Miles proves the true killer's guilt) he only really gets emotional when it's about people he personally knows well and cares about (like Kay). Rhoda is the only one outside of that demographic that gets a relatively strong reaction from him (unlike, say, Meekins in the next case who also gets arrested temporarily). It completely fits the emotional development of the case, don't get me wrong, and it's a wonderfully effective sad moment but it's pretty unusual for Miles nonetheless.

The shipper in me is delighted, of course, but apart from that I wonder if he maybe feels protective over/indebted to Rhoda in some way because she lied partly for his sake? Since she went out of her way to help him he doesn't think her being guilty would make sense and feels the need to help her in return.

[fraeuleintaka]

The stark contrast between Miles' reactions to Rhoda and Cammy is so interesting to me.

Rhoda accuses him of murder and with that is basically responsible for all the hoops he has to jump through during this case but he's incredibly kind and polite to her, calls her suspicion completely justified and never once expresses anger or even really annoyance at her specifically. The only thing Cammy's done so far (that he knows of) is falling asleep on him constantly but he seems to take that a lot harder than anything Rhoda's done. His tone towards her is noticably harsher and more irritated. He's not exactly mean but if he was purely nice to Rhoda to be able to investigate he should do the same with Cammy but he doesn't.

So you can accuse Miles of murder, he's fine with that, but don't you dare fall asleep on him! Or maybe there's some other reason why he's so sweet to Rhoda...?

[fraeuleintaka]

Rhoda's priorities strike again!

One of my favourite things about their dynamic is how different yet similar her and Miles are to each other. They're both rather serious characters who put their dedication to their respective work above all else. Given that, it's all the more fascinating that their banter is so incredibly entertaining! You'd think it'b be boring with two "serious" characters but they're both just the right amount of weird in the right circumstances that they play off of each other perfectly. It's a pretty unique dynamic as far as player-assistant pairs are concerned which is another reason why I think Rhoda would make for a great (and unique) official assistant.