[open RP meme] The "pester Edgeworth in his office" post, Dreamwidth edition

[truthsnomiracle]

[Chances are, when you enter room 1202 of the Prosecutor's Office, you'll find High Prosecutor Miles Edgeworth hard at work. He learned the hard way not to be too quick to throw people out when they interrupt him, so as annoyed as he probably will be once he notices your presence, you'll more likely than not get a sufficient chance to justify yourself. Usually.]

[To help clarify the purpose of this post, this is someplace anyone can come tag me if they want -- just start a thread and specify Canonworth, TVKworth, or any other preference! Canons, AUs, OCs, and canon OCs welcome, both AA and non-AA!]

Comments

[cantacquityou]

...




I believe I may very well be aware of my loss.

[truthsnomiracle]

(While I admit curiosity, I also recognize that tone -- the point is most assuredly best not pressed.)

...Very well.

[If nothing else, awkward silences are good opportunities to sip tea...]

[cantacquityou]

[Ah, you know yourself very well, Edgeworth. However, contrary to the usual, this Edgeworth finds this to be a shining opportunity to get the information he has been wanting for a very, very long time...and he actually wants to talk about it. He sips his tea as well.]










...I do not suppose it would trouble you to tell me a bit about my father? I do not recall ever having one.

1/2

[truthsnomiracle]

[Whoa.]

A staggering loss indeed. If not for his influence, we might not have questioned our mentor's beliefs sufficiently to have refused to cross certain lines -- if not for our father, we would have been no man worth Wright's pursuit.

2/2, and keywords.

[truthsnomiracle]

Gregory Edgeworth was a defense attorney -- famous in his day, and our idol as a boy. [The local Edgeworth pauses for a moment to think of how to describe his own father to himself...] Imagine, if you would, that Wright's temperament were more akin to our own, though warmer than ours. He lived for justice... and ultimately, through a single scratch placed on our future mentor's record, he died for it.

And yet... th-though it pains me to admit it... that isn't the end of the story.

[cantacquityou]

Go on. Please.

/wades deep into headcanon interpretation of how Edgey took 3-5

[truthsnomiracle]

...Consider, if you would, the one and only thing that we've refused to believe even in the face of evidence -- evidence that whispered in Wright's ear in plain sight time and again. We told ourselves that it was mere showmanship, until a certain case made it far harder to deny -- not because of the displays it involved, but because the facts of the case made sense no other way, and because our insistent denial of the very category this thing would fall into was thrown into question by another experience earlier in the same case. Even then, we continued to cling irrationally to the hope that it wasn't true.

Have you never wondered why?

[cantacquityou]

I understand what you are referring to, yes. After all, [He quoted himself - a quote the other Edgeworth may recall himself saying prior to the case in question] "what true 'Man of Science' would believe in such tripe" without sufficient evidence? But what relevance is there where our father is concerned?

[truthsnomiracle]

B-because... we would sooner deny that v-very e-evidence... th-than entertain the n-notion that our father would b-betray his own values post-mortem with a l-lie when it mattered m-most.

...That is what my last doppelganger forced me to realize. The third party who kept him at bay can be thanked for helping me realize Father's motive for such a crime, however.

[cantacquityou]

[He found himself terribly perturbed not only by the implications brought upon the association of his father with the word, 'crime', but by the effect it appeared to be having on the self seated before him.]

"Betray his own va-..." "Post-mortem"? I am afraid I don't understand...

[truthsnomiracle]

He committed p-perjury, in the name of preventing us from being accused of killing him. ...Even after the case in which we last aided Wright in our home worlds, we continued to deny that which made such testimony possible, insist to ourselves that it must have been a hoax, rather than consider the possibility that Father was the liar rather than Misty Fey.

[cantacquityou]

[He throws his head back and rubs at his forehead and temples with his fingers.]


...It is all starting to come together, now... The victim of that 'DL-6' incident...it was...my father...

[truthsnomiracle]

Precisely.

[cantacquityou]

Just that little piece of the puzzle explains a whole lot, really... If that is the case, what exactly did he 'lie' about, and what evidence do we have to say that he did so intentionally?

[truthsnomiracle]

[Give this Edgeworth a moment; these aren't the most pleasant memories.

After regathering himself a bit:]

Father... died while unconscious. In a completely true account on his part, he would therefore have claimed that he didn't know how he died. However, those of us in the elevator passed out the moment after we, in our addled state, threw the gun. Furthermore, we and Yanni Yogi were the only people in the elevator aside from Father. Finally, he, much like the police, had no reason to suspect that the murderer might have come from outside the elevator.

[He pauses, allowing his other self a chance for his other self to question his premises... or to simply draw conclusions from them.]

[cantacquityou]

....The victim - Father - placed the blame on the bailiff, yes... I recall those details, at least...

[truthsnomiracle]

The fact that the victim was Father and he had no reason to consider other suspects provides his motive for placing that blame. Ultimately, he placed our life -- (or would it be lives? Tense grows confusing when one is talking about experiences shared with an alternate self) -- before the truth... he loved us more than justice.

[cantacquityou]

It is not very farfetched to think that he would, I must admit... no matter what sort of man we believed him to be. Most parents would seldom place justice, or anything for the matter, over the lives of their children...

[truthsnomiracle]

And yet I would have preferred it if he had, despite the risks. I've had time to reflect upon the revelation that he lied, and have come to the conclusion that perhaps a hidden part of me kept watch over that possibility all along... and if that weren't the case, then perhaps my hatred would have been restrained to Robbert Hammond rather than the entire profession.

[cantacquityou]

...I see what you mean. [Of course, I'm you, after all...] Then again, I am sure neither of us would have truly been able to anticipate the outcome, either way.

[truthsnomiracle]

Indeed not. From that single butterfly's wingbeat, everything about the case would have changed.

[cantacquityou]

[He inhales deeply and closes his eyes. He remains quiet for several seconds.]




...I suppose it cannot be helped, now. How about this; Why don't you share with me a fond memory or two of Father? You said that we idolized him, yes? It must have been for good reason. Whatever I have heard of him prior to this came from Wright, and it was very little. I must say, though it wasn't even his loss, Wright reacted rather vehemently upon discovering that my loss was all memory of my father. Given that, he must have been a good man, Father.

[truthsnomiracle]

Father never seemed to regard me as a child. While other children's obsession with the limited intricacies of checkers continued even as I grew bored with them, Father noticed my frustration and taught me chess. That I would have any interest in the game at such a young age merely confused those at school, but at home, Father would gladly make time to play in the event that he wasn't excessively burdened with work.

I remember one game in particular in which he made good use of a knight promotion to thwart the defenses I'd set up. Like most amateurs, I didn't understand why he hadn't simply promoted the pawn to a queen and proceeded to begin capturing my rooks -- that is, until it had found its way out of their reach entirely and had put my king in check. The pawn I could have otherwise used to capture it was pinned by his lone remaining rook. Frankly, I was astonished.

[cantacquityou]

[He listens to the story intently, gazing off to the side, wistfully... By learning all that he could about his father, he was coming to understand himself more, considering that a massive part of his sense of self was robbed along with his memories. He remains silent, as if anticipating more, even though that seemed to be the end of it...]

[truthsnomiracle]

[Noting the expectant look, the local Edgeworth paused to think of another story...]

Whenever he won a case, he would return home with a smile on his face -- nothing outlandish in its scale, yet obvious enough. Once the pattern was well-established, I eventually asked him why he smiled in those circumstances. In response, he said that it was because his trust in his client had been decisively confirmed, and that there was no better feeling than having one's faith prove to be well-founded.