jurisprudence | Open RP | Voicetesting & Etc.

Oh, I'm sure you've already drawn some absurd conclusion of your own. You think I'll say I have one for every day of the week, don't you?

[Which, even if he did, it's not like he'd ADMIT TO IT!!!

Wright's voice, however...he manages to sound so easygoing, so natural, and yet he's still the same person he is when he's behind the defense counsel's desk. He doesn't become a different one when he steps behind it; it only brings out a different side of him, rather than changing him altogether.

That's enviable. Isn't it?]

I expect I own more cravats than you do suits, at the very least.

Well, now that you mention it...

[There's an exaggerated thoughtfulness on his face, but it's also playful. Ah, this is nice when no one's life is on the line! Who knew.

Then he's the target. OOF.]

H-hey. I have... more than one!

As do I. My expectation stands.

[TEE HEE. Time for a victory sip of coffee. So smooth. So rich. So satisfying. So smug.]

Which reminds me — you've yet to forward me your bill. When can I expect it?

[There's a scowl on Phoenix's face, up until he's asked about the bill.]

(Yeah, about that... I know I probably should, but it feels wrong. I want to say that it was about paying him back after all of this time, but it's not that simple either.)

I really wasn't expecting you to pay me for it. Not for a case like that. And I'm not saying that out of pity or whatever you might think.

(You've already been through a lot, Edgeworth.)

...

[Is...is he serious. He can't possibly be serious. In fact, so certain is Edgeworth of the fact that Wright cannot possibly be serious that he's just looking at him with his patented "you literally cannot be serious" face.]

I don't think it's pity, I think it's shortsighted stupidity.

[He shakes his head, pinching the bridge of his nose, but aside from some exasperation, there's a genuine warmth in his expression.]

You may feel as though what you did was some sort of favor to me, or an expression of...friendship. Perhaps it was. But you rendered me a professional service — and one that, if you'll recall, no other attorney was willing to extend to me.

[For perhaps the first time that night, he glances up properly, intending to meet Phoenix's eyes with his own.]

You're asking me to insult you by undervaluing your skill and contribution. I refuse. What you do with the other cases you take is none of my concern, but I won't be forced into such a disrespectful position, even by you. That you took the case at all was...a favor, perhaps. To fail to compensate your time and effort would make me no better than someone who walks out on their check without paying.

(Hey, it's not like I asked any of my other clients to not pay! I think Mr. Powers is the only one who did...)

[Abruptly, he feels anchored when Edgeworth's eyes meet his. Phoenix goes still for a moment, not looking away.]

I really don't mind. But, uh, I won't refuse payment either. That's what I'll say about it. It wasn't about doing you a favor, but because I-- well, I felt like you needed me. Uh, my defense, that is.

Needed you...?

[Absurd. Ridiculous. Unthinkable. At least, so say his old habits, the ones hammered into him over and over again after years of mistaken beliefs.

But beliefs alone have no place in a courtroom, do they? The evidence is all that matters, and in this case...

Where would he be, right now, if not for Phoenix Wright?]

Well. You...believed I was innocent when even I'd accepted otherwise. So.

[...]

Maybe I did. ...Need you.

[Phoenix feels his heart beat a little harder. And he knows why, but he keeps it to himself. It goes beyond just a childhood memory that inspired him all those years ago. It closer to how desperate he'd been to try to get in contact with Edgeworth, concerned about the rumors he'd heard, how different he was.

But there a lot of parts of him that are the same, too. Like how reserved he is, for example.]

I don't regret it. Not even for a second.

(I won't stop believing in you even now.)

I don't deserve it. You know I don't.

[He lifts a hand, raising a finger to stifle any objection before it can make its way into the space between them.]

No, Wright. Hear me out. You'll say "deserving has nothing to do with it", but you can't refute the evidence.

I haven't given up my role as a prosecutor. I haven't expunged every last bit of Manfred von Karma's influence over what I am. Some of it...was me. It would be naive to pretend otherwise. I was complicit in...this.

Truthfully, I don't know why you aren't disappointed.

(Urk... Stole the words out of my mouth! Seriously...)

[For a moment, his hands feel fidgety, so he decides to hold his mug. The coffee's still warm, inviting, even if it's kind of crappy coffee. Caffeine is caffeine, though.]

I just think it's more complicated than that. The only thing I thought about when I started hearing those rumors and everything was: what could have happened?

I more or less have that answer now. I wouldn't expect you to just manage to drop everything you've learned over the past few years, either. Just that-- I know there's a part of you that cares about the truth.

...Not all of the cases I'm reviewing are his. I left that part out before.

[His gaze lowers, his eyes flitting from the curve of slender fingers around the cheap Danichan's coffee cup to his own, pale against the darker manila of his casefile.]

I always told myself that I wasn't doing anything wrong. That the ends justified the means. It didn't matter who the defendants were, or their situation. Appearances, circumstances...how could any of that hold any relevance when I, outwardly the perfect prosecutor, was in fact responsible for the death of my own father...?

It was easy to find them guilty, Wright. I pursued them relentlessly, the way he taught me...and as though, if I could only put enough criminals away, then perhaps I could do enough good to balance out the weight of my own crime.

This is the truth. You...seem to have decided to care about me, so...

[Awkwardly, he grasps for his coffee cup, holding it in mirror image of Wright's.]

You must know it's a losing proposition. Yet it seems you're still determined to defend it, anyway...

I figured that's basically what you meant, though.

[His own cases and von Karma's. Maybe Edgeworth blames himself so much he sees it as two halves of the same whole -- but Phoenix would disagree in a heartbeat. Of course he would.

Yeah, he does care, and he's a little flustered to hear it out of Edgeworth's mouth, but he'd never take it back.]

In case you hadn't noticed, my corner in court usually looks like the losing side. Until I prove otherwise.

And if I have to keep proving it to you that you're better than you give yourself credit for, I'll do that.

Until you blunder your way into some sort of breakthrough.

[Which is infuriating, from a prosecutor's point of view. But...rather compelling from the point of view of someone who had once wanted to be a defense attorney in pursuit of the truth.

Idly, he wonders what it must feel like, to be in that position firsthand. To stride into a cross-examination woefully underprepared, with next to no idea of how things will even proceed, and simply argue a case on the fly, on observation and a sort of reckless cunning alone. How unnerving that must feel, not knowing every move before the game is even placed. No wonder Wright always winds up looking flustered and dumbfounded no less than three times every trial. And yet every time he's thrown for a loop, he picks himself back up again, thinks it through, and launches himself back into the fray.

Well...even he did that once, didn't he? When he knew Dee Vasquez's testimony was wrong. When there had to be more...and Wright had nothing, and yet he'd stepped up to press himself...

What if...

What if this conversation, right here and right now...were more like that?

That thought, too, is unnerving. But Wright has already made it clear that he'll never give up on this particular line of pursuit, so maybe...maybe even an error won't be fatal. Maybe...maybe...

What if, just for one second, he drew a conclusion like Phoenix Wright?]

When you put it like that, doesn't it almost sound as though you're saying you need me, too?

Hey...!

(I mean. He's not wrong. But hey!)

[But instead, Edgeworth does... make a point. It's kind of embarrassing, but he's not ashamed of that either. Phoenix wouldn't be where he is without Larry or Edgeworth, and he certainly wouldn't even have changed majors if he didn't hear about the rumors.

He has a drink of coffee. It's cooling off, but that's fine. It does its job as filler.]

Yeah. I guess that's true.

[He won't even try to deny it.]

Is that all right?

...!

[That...worked?! He's not even denying it? How can he — and so easily — and —

What?!]

W...Why? What could someone like you possibly...

[Well, it's definitely not money, given previous discussion of pro bono work, and the stupidity therein.]

You...want to need me?

Open RP | Voicetesting & Etc.

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