Phoenix never looks like a proper lawyer (or even clerk) in the Horizon. He always appears in the horizon wearing a schlubby sweatshirt/sweatpants combo with socks and sandals and a beanie with his arcana pinned to it. But he does tend to seem more relaxed here too, relaxed in a way that he never quite manages in the outside when he and Kay are so clearly outsiders in Solvunn. With that in mind, he invites Kay back to his place after Sam's cookout. He just thinks it'd be nice to be in a place that actually feels like theirs.
Phoenix's small house in a lush garden designed for maximum family enjoyment--flowers, edible berries, babbling brooks with Mandarin ducks and crawfish, a treehouse and a happy hound napping on the porch--has clearly made space for a lot of people. Walking inside, it looks like many more people live there than actually do. The closet has a familiar bright magenta suit hanging next to a green trench coat and a black suit jacket clearly cut for a buxom woman, someone left a bright blue top hat on the hat stand, and someone else left pink and purple obis lying on the arm of the couch, like two women were in the middle of putting on a pink and purple kimono respectively and would be right back. On the coffee table, someone else presumably left an ornate gold bracelet and a single crescent moon earring. This is to say nothing of all the strange stage props that are just lying around in a strange and unknowable order.
It all leaves Phoenix's home looking cluttered and stuffed with guests that all are nonetheless out of sight for now. But what really fills up the space are all the photos. Photos of Miles Edgeworth's softened face as he gives Phoenix a smile usually only reserved for him, of a woman in a black suit with her arms slung around a smiling woman in a purple kimono and a grinning little girl in a pink obi, of a man in a red suit mid-yell as a woman in a yellow suit drags him along behind her... but there are so very many pictures of a particular girl in a blue stage costume. Her as a small child, kissing Phoenix's cheek. Her as a teenager, hugging the man in the red suit from behind with a grin while he has a comically flustered expression. Her laboring over knitting a blue beanie with the word 'Papa' on it... much like the one Phoenix is wearing now, minus the words.
Phoenix yawns as he comes into the house, seemingly not noticing at all the wealth of information about himself he's just revealed to Kay. "I'm guessing you're not still hungry after all that, but did you want to have some water or something?"
Kay's dressed not too far off from the way she would back in their own world, but it happens to be leaps and bounds different from the way she's able to dress in Solvunn. Here she's sporting her self-made Yatagarasu outfit, with a few minor tweaks and embellishments... Shorts and leggings instead of her school uniform skirt, a scarf that's a bit more suited for pulling up over her nose/mouth to hide her face. Her vest, karakusa patterned on the front, shifts to solid color on the back, where her arcana symbol is proudly emblazoned.
She's not sure what she was expecting Phoenix's domain to be like... probably not anything like this, if she's being honest? But the reality somehow manages to be both entirely unexpected and yet strangely fitting for the man. It's quaint, a little slice of paradise for a guy with a highly stressful job. The choice of setting alone says a lot.
That said, Kay can't help but laugh a little at his beverage offer. "Come on Mr. Wright, we're in a magical dream reality where we can make anything happen, and you're asking me if I want to drink some water?" she teases incredulously, trailing inside after him. The moment she walks in she starts skimming the whole place with her usual brand of unabashed curiosity, taking in what she can... It's hard to know where to even start.
He lets out a soft noise that could pass as a chuckle, rubbing the back of his neck. "Alright, you got me there." He's so used to barely scraping by financially that even in his dreams, he only ever considers water as an option. Wine would have been an option once, but certainly not anymore, not even here.
"Pick anything. Anything that isn't alcoholic," he says it with the fond firmness of a dad. Even if he weren't firmly on the wagon, he wouldn't have his teenage charge drinking even in their dreams. He clears off a space for her on the couch, throwing the obis over his arm with the practiced ease of someone who's had to clean up after people who wear a lot of kimonos before.
"Aw, I'm just teasing," Kay snorts, waving him off. "I'm all good. No drink for me." Rather than sitting down right away, she moves to poke around and take a closer look at some of the stuff in here instead, heading for the photographs first.
"Heheh... You've sure got a lot of knick-knacks and mementos in here, huh?" she observes. It's a bit of a cluttered mess, but... She kind of likes it? And the clutter is hardly surprising, considering she's seen how Phoenix tends to keep up his personal spaces in real life. Her expression falters, just briefly, as she skims over a picture featuring Edgeworth; the pang of sadness she feels at the sight of that familiar face catches her like a punch to the gut, though she's quick to bundle any visible evidence of the pain back under a thick layer of cheeriness.
The picture itself catches her eye for reasons beyond just being of someone she knows, though. For starters, the typically stern-faced prosecutor is looking a bit older here than how she remembers him, though that only makes sense; Kay is well aware of the time disparity between her and Mr. Wright by now. So what else? The warm and rarely seen smile? That actually isn't entirely unfamiliar to her. She swears she can probably count on one hand the number of times she's gotten to see it, but Kay is still one of the few people in the world to have the privilege of being a recipient of that particular variety of Edgeworth Expression... (Though here-- and perhaps this is just her imagination, but she notes it all the same-- there's maybe a slightly different sort of affection in the eyes than what she has personally glimpsed in the past...? Hm...)
None of these things are what really ping her about the photo, though. No, what really gets her attention is the realization that:
"Mister Edgeworth wears glasses!?" she yelps. She's leaning in to peer at the picture so close her nose is practically touching the glass, as if she can't quite believe what she's seeing.
Phoenix folds the obis with a smile, placing them on the coffee table. His folding is neat, far neater than the way he usually treats his own clothes. He almost misses the way Kay's expression falters when she looks at Edgeworth's picture. Almost, but not quite.
A picture appears on the table next to the couch, one of Edgeworth somewhere between as Kay knows him and as he's pictured with his glasses, lines beginning to show in the corners of his eyes as he squints at a recipe card with furrowed brows and the young girl in a blue top hat ties apron strings behind his back, her cheek smeared with batter. That happens sometimes, he's realized. The more he thinks of a person in a given moment, the more pictures of them appear in the house.
He lets out a bark of laughter, smiling wide at Kay. "I forgot you wouldn't have known that! He should have gotten them years ago. He only cracked when the embarrassment of squinting at all his evidence in court got worse than just wearing glasses. He was almost pressing his nose to the autopsy reports by the end."
Kay turns back around to face Phoenix properly, positively grinning from ear to ear like a horrible cheshire cat. This information opens up so many new avenues for pranks she can pull on the poor guy? Or at the very least it's something to gently heckle him about, when they finally meet again.
"I can't believe it... So this whole time that trademark icy glare of his, that was really just from him squinting because he needed glasses?"
While she's talking, her eyes flick towards the newly materialized photograph on the sofa table, brows raising inquisitively. She moves to get a closer look at that one next, casually picking it up.
"I'm pretty sure that he didn't even know he was glaring half the time," Phoenix laughs, waving his hand dismissively. "His face is just like that."
A combination of nearsightedness and resting prosecutor face led to poor Edgeworth seeming much more unpleasant than he actually is.
Phoenix tilts his head to look at the picture she just picked up, smiling affectionately. "Oh, that was him working on a birthday cake for a friend one year. He was going to just buy one, but Trucy insisted on making one together. He's even worse at saying no to her than I am." He says it casually, like Kay would just know who Trucy is. Like her presence is just something to take for granted in Phoenix's and Edgeworth's life.
Yeah about that. Looking up from the photo briefly to grin at Phoenix, she asks the obvious question here: "Is Trucy the girl in this picture? She's totally adorable!"
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
[Closed to Kay]
Phoenix's small house in a lush garden designed for maximum family enjoyment--flowers, edible berries, babbling brooks with Mandarin ducks and crawfish, a treehouse and a happy hound napping on the porch--has clearly made space for a lot of people. Walking inside, it looks like many more people live there than actually do. The closet has a familiar bright magenta suit hanging next to a green trench coat and a black suit jacket clearly cut for a buxom woman, someone left a bright blue top hat on the hat stand, and someone else left pink and purple obis lying on the arm of the couch, like two women were in the middle of putting on a pink and purple kimono respectively and would be right back. On the coffee table, someone else presumably left an ornate gold bracelet and a single crescent moon earring. This is to say nothing of all the strange stage props that are just lying around in a strange and unknowable order.
It all leaves Phoenix's home looking cluttered and stuffed with guests that all are nonetheless out of sight for now. But what really fills up the space are all the photos. Photos of Miles Edgeworth's softened face as he gives Phoenix a smile usually only reserved for him, of a woman in a black suit with her arms slung around a smiling woman in a purple kimono and a grinning little girl in a pink obi, of a man in a red suit mid-yell as a woman in a yellow suit drags him along behind her... but there are so very many pictures of a particular girl in a blue stage costume. Her as a small child, kissing Phoenix's cheek. Her as a teenager, hugging the man in the red suit from behind with a grin while he has a comically flustered expression. Her laboring over knitting a blue beanie with the word 'Papa' on it... much like the one Phoenix is wearing now, minus the words.
Phoenix yawns as he comes into the house, seemingly not noticing at all the wealth of information about himself he's just revealed to Kay. "I'm guessing you're not still hungry after all that, but did you want to have some water or something?"
no subject
She's not sure what she was expecting Phoenix's domain to be like... probably not anything like this, if she's being honest? But the reality somehow manages to be both entirely unexpected and yet strangely fitting for the man. It's quaint, a little slice of paradise for a guy with a highly stressful job. The choice of setting alone says a lot.
That said, Kay can't help but laugh a little at his beverage offer. "Come on Mr. Wright, we're in a magical dream reality where we can make anything happen, and you're asking me if I want to drink some water?" she teases incredulously, trailing inside after him. The moment she walks in she starts skimming the whole place with her usual brand of unabashed curiosity, taking in what she can... It's hard to know where to even start.
no subject
"Pick anything. Anything that isn't alcoholic," he says it with the fond firmness of a dad. Even if he weren't firmly on the wagon, he wouldn't have his teenage charge drinking even in their dreams. He clears off a space for her on the couch, throwing the obis over his arm with the practiced ease of someone who's had to clean up after people who wear a lot of kimonos before.
no subject
"Heheh... You've sure got a lot of knick-knacks and mementos in here, huh?" she observes. It's a bit of a cluttered mess, but... She kind of likes it? And the clutter is hardly surprising, considering she's seen how Phoenix tends to keep up his personal spaces in real life. Her expression falters, just briefly, as she skims over a picture featuring Edgeworth; the pang of sadness she feels at the sight of that familiar face catches her like a punch to the gut, though she's quick to bundle any visible evidence of the pain back under a thick layer of cheeriness.
The picture itself catches her eye for reasons beyond just being of someone she knows, though. For starters, the typically stern-faced prosecutor is looking a bit older here than how she remembers him, though that only makes sense; Kay is well aware of the time disparity between her and Mr. Wright by now. So what else? The warm and rarely seen smile? That actually isn't entirely unfamiliar to her. She swears she can probably count on one hand the number of times she's gotten to see it, but Kay is still one of the few people in the world to have the privilege of being a recipient of that particular variety of Edgeworth Expression... (Though here-- and perhaps this is just her imagination, but she notes it all the same-- there's maybe a slightly different sort of affection in the eyes than what she has personally glimpsed in the past...? Hm...)
None of these things are what really ping her about the photo, though. No, what really gets her attention is the realization that:
"Mister Edgeworth wears glasses!?" she yelps. She's leaning in to peer at the picture so close her nose is practically touching the glass, as if she can't quite believe what she's seeing.
no subject
A picture appears on the table next to the couch, one of Edgeworth somewhere between as Kay knows him and as he's pictured with his glasses, lines beginning to show in the corners of his eyes as he squints at a recipe card with furrowed brows and the young girl in a blue top hat ties apron strings behind his back, her cheek smeared with batter. That happens sometimes, he's realized. The more he thinks of a person in a given moment, the more pictures of them appear in the house.
He lets out a bark of laughter, smiling wide at Kay. "I forgot you wouldn't have known that! He should have gotten them years ago. He only cracked when the embarrassment of squinting at all his evidence in court got worse than just wearing glasses. He was almost pressing his nose to the autopsy reports by the end."
no subject
"I can't believe it... So this whole time that trademark icy glare of his, that was really just from him squinting because he needed glasses?"
While she's talking, her eyes flick towards the newly materialized photograph on the sofa table, brows raising inquisitively. She moves to get a closer look at that one next, casually picking it up.
no subject
A combination of nearsightedness and resting prosecutor face led to poor Edgeworth seeming much more unpleasant than he actually is.
Phoenix tilts his head to look at the picture she just picked up, smiling affectionately. "Oh, that was him working on a birthday cake for a friend one year. He was going to just buy one, but Trucy insisted on making one together. He's even worse at saying no to her than I am." He says it casually, like Kay would just know who Trucy is. Like her presence is just something to take for granted in Phoenix's and Edgeworth's life.
I'M ALIVE AGAIN I swear