Profile
Name: Wright, Phoenix
Fandom: Ace Attorney (or Phoenix Wright, in US release)
History link: [http://aceattorney.wikia.com/wiki/Phoenix_Wright] - feel free to just reference this if you want to skip my personal tl;dr below
The details of Phoenix's life are somewhat sketchy up until the age of 21 or so - it's known that he underwent a major formative experience when he was 9 years old (presumably in the Spring of 3rd grade). At that time, he was accused of stealing an envelope of lunch money and put up before a mock trail in his classroom. Since he was the only person who's had an opportunity to take the money, his classmates simply assumed that he was guilty and ganged up on him. However, the very boy whose lunch money had been stolen came to his defense, telling the class in no uncertain terms that they could not accuse an innocent person without proof. Another boy joined in the protest, and it was these two children - Larry Butz and Miles Edgeworth - who soon became Phoenix's closest friends. However, Phoenix lost touch with Miles in December of that year - the child never returned to school after winter vacation, effectively disappearing. Still, Phoenix never forgot him, or the how he'd come to Phoenix's defense at the most terrifying, lonely moment of his life.
Phoenix would not hear of Miles again until he was in college - by that time he had begun to study art, though he still dabbled in law on the side. He began to read in newspapers of a prodigy prosecuting attorney, one who hunted 'guilty' verdicts with singleminded fervor and who, it was said, would go to any lengths to secure a conviction. He was distraught and puzzled that his childhood friend, who had often crowed about following in his father's footsteps as a famous defense attorney, had apparently become someone completely different. At that point, he decided that he would become a defense attorney, both to force Edgeworth to face him and to find out the truth of what had happened to him.
It was during his time in college that he dated Dahlia Hawthorne, a sweet-faced and demure girl who, beneath her parasol and charms, was both an extortionist and murderer. He was completely lovestruck, and refused to believe that his Dollie could ever do anything even questionably moral, even when faced in court with proof that Dahila had killed her ex-boyfriend and, in pursuit of a charm she'd given him that implicated her in a murder, was planning to kill Phoenix. After this trial, he began to apprentice under Mia Fey, his defense attorney. Mia became his mentor and eventually a working partner, up until she was murdered. It was after Mia's murder that Phoenix met Maya Fey, who was Mia's younger sister. He successfully defended her against accusations of sororicide (placed because Maya had been first on the murder scene), and afterwards Maya stuck around, acting as Phoenix's assistant.
Three months later, Phoenix unexpectedly found himself defending Edgeworth, and in the process discovered why the man had disappeared and what had happened to change him. Maya left after the trial to continue her training as a spirit medium, though Phoenix remained for yet more revelations in the form of another trial. The two aforementioned trials both outlined horrifying underbellies within the legal system - the first bringing to light a murder committed by a famed prosecutor and the second implicating the city's own Chief of Police in evidence tampering, murder, and a variety of other crimes. Still, he did not seem disillusioned, and continued to take cases and defend staunchly. He was troubled, though - the revelations seemed to have had a more dramatic effect on Edgeworth, and he left the Prosecutor's office with what appeared to be a suicide note. When Edgeworth returned, full of a determined vigor and thoughts on the meaning of prosecution, Phoenix was initially less than thrilled - his trust had been betrayed and he'd been abandoned by the same trusted person a second time. Eventually, though, he warmed to Edgeworth, as a case spent defending a truly guilty man led him to his own pondering on what being a defense attorney actually meant - something beyond simply doing everything in one's power to obtain a 'not guilty' verdict.
However, one of his most life-altering cases comes at the very end of the trilogy. Phoenix is faced with a murder involving both Maya's family and Dahlia, jailed and then dead (presumably executed) since her last court appearance. There is a great amount of both danger and actual injury - Phoenix falls through a burning bridge and into a river while trying to race across the bridge to find Maya, Maya is the subject of an attempted murder - there are several homicidal parties, one of them a ghost, and it is up to Phoenix to sift out the truth. This trial (in more ways than one) did not change his opinion of the legal system, but increased his faith in himself and his ability to defend and protect his loved ones. Even his mentor, channeled by one of her relatives, tells him that she can't teach him anything more.
Unsolved mysteries: For the purpose of this RP, I am assuming that Phoenix, a single child (canon), was raised in a suburb of Los Angeles by his mother and father. He attended grade school, moved on to high school, and from there Ivy College (canon), where he majored in theater (creator interview speculation) and minored in law.
Age: 26
Canon point: I am taking Phoenix from the end of the third game (Trials and Tribulations). At the end of a very long and exhausting case, he's come home from the celebration party at some ungodly hour and crawled into bed. Unfortunately, that is not where he will wake up.
Personality: Phoenix, for all that he is a reasonable, clever man, is first and foremost an emotional person. He is virtuous in the truest sense of the word, living by virtues before goals or standards, and makes decisions based upon his heart before he makes them based upon utility or what is statistically favorable. While that at times causes him to leap before looking, it also means that he takes great chances on nothing more than faith and emerges with victories that a colder, more analytical man could not hope for. This also makes him extremely dedicated - many times he seems to give up on himself before giving up on a client, and he is literally willing to risk his life for those closest to him.
However, the fact that he is led by his heart does not make him a pushover. On the contrary, he possesses a keen (if occasionally sarcastic) wit, and clearly possesses a clean sense for the ridiculous even as he dives headlong into it in his attempts to untangle the mysteries he's faced with. He has outgrown the sentimentality of his college years and, while he still feels deeply about given people and situations, subsumes anger into determination and sadness into quietness. He is more prone to give a silent, sarcastic remark than to fire back at incendiary remarks, restraining the majority of his verbal retorts to light, sibling-esque banter with Maya. The less he's on familiar terms with someone, the less likely he is to jibe them, and even in his internal monologue engages in as much incredulous observation as derision.
Phoenix's demeanor is flexible, yet still rather stable - he progresses in a sympathetic way through all normal human emotions, both positive and negative. At the same time, though, he is capable of broad shifts in personality when the situation calls for it. When Maya's life is in danger, for example, he shows singleminded bravery when he is able to act, as well as relentless anxiety and depression when his hands are tied. He is passionate but also focused, and directs all his determination to determining the truth of the riddles he encounters in the course of the job. He never loses faith in the fact (and indeed, at points it doesn't even seem to occur to him) that there is one absolute truth, and it is within his ability to uncover it once he find the right method or tool.
Powers/Abilities: It's not really a power, but he has a magic charm (given to him by a friend) that lets him see, in the course of conversation, both a) when people are hiding something, and b) how good of a job he's doing ferreting the truth out of them regardless. However, that's more of an item than an intrinsic power, as other people who are given this item can also use its ability without any specialized knowledge, affinity, or training.
Fandom: Ace Attorney (or Phoenix Wright, in US release)
History link: [http://aceattorney.wikia.com/wiki/Phoenix_Wright] - feel free to just reference this if you want to skip my personal tl;dr below
The details of Phoenix's life are somewhat sketchy up until the age of 21 or so - it's known that he underwent a major formative experience when he was 9 years old (presumably in the Spring of 3rd grade). At that time, he was accused of stealing an envelope of lunch money and put up before a mock trail in his classroom. Since he was the only person who's had an opportunity to take the money, his classmates simply assumed that he was guilty and ganged up on him. However, the very boy whose lunch money had been stolen came to his defense, telling the class in no uncertain terms that they could not accuse an innocent person without proof. Another boy joined in the protest, and it was these two children - Larry Butz and Miles Edgeworth - who soon became Phoenix's closest friends. However, Phoenix lost touch with Miles in December of that year - the child never returned to school after winter vacation, effectively disappearing. Still, Phoenix never forgot him, or the how he'd come to Phoenix's defense at the most terrifying, lonely moment of his life.
Phoenix would not hear of Miles again until he was in college - by that time he had begun to study art, though he still dabbled in law on the side. He began to read in newspapers of a prodigy prosecuting attorney, one who hunted 'guilty' verdicts with singleminded fervor and who, it was said, would go to any lengths to secure a conviction. He was distraught and puzzled that his childhood friend, who had often crowed about following in his father's footsteps as a famous defense attorney, had apparently become someone completely different. At that point, he decided that he would become a defense attorney, both to force Edgeworth to face him and to find out the truth of what had happened to him.
It was during his time in college that he dated Dahlia Hawthorne, a sweet-faced and demure girl who, beneath her parasol and charms, was both an extortionist and murderer. He was completely lovestruck, and refused to believe that his Dollie could ever do anything even questionably moral, even when faced in court with proof that Dahila had killed her ex-boyfriend and, in pursuit of a charm she'd given him that implicated her in a murder, was planning to kill Phoenix. After this trial, he began to apprentice under Mia Fey, his defense attorney. Mia became his mentor and eventually a working partner, up until she was murdered. It was after Mia's murder that Phoenix met Maya Fey, who was Mia's younger sister. He successfully defended her against accusations of sororicide (placed because Maya had been first on the murder scene), and afterwards Maya stuck around, acting as Phoenix's assistant.
Three months later, Phoenix unexpectedly found himself defending Edgeworth, and in the process discovered why the man had disappeared and what had happened to change him. Maya left after the trial to continue her training as a spirit medium, though Phoenix remained for yet more revelations in the form of another trial. The two aforementioned trials both outlined horrifying underbellies within the legal system - the first bringing to light a murder committed by a famed prosecutor and the second implicating the city's own Chief of Police in evidence tampering, murder, and a variety of other crimes. Still, he did not seem disillusioned, and continued to take cases and defend staunchly. He was troubled, though - the revelations seemed to have had a more dramatic effect on Edgeworth, and he left the Prosecutor's office with what appeared to be a suicide note. When Edgeworth returned, full of a determined vigor and thoughts on the meaning of prosecution, Phoenix was initially less than thrilled - his trust had been betrayed and he'd been abandoned by the same trusted person a second time. Eventually, though, he warmed to Edgeworth, as a case spent defending a truly guilty man led him to his own pondering on what being a defense attorney actually meant - something beyond simply doing everything in one's power to obtain a 'not guilty' verdict.
However, one of his most life-altering cases comes at the very end of the trilogy. Phoenix is faced with a murder involving both Maya's family and Dahlia, jailed and then dead (presumably executed) since her last court appearance. There is a great amount of both danger and actual injury - Phoenix falls through a burning bridge and into a river while trying to race across the bridge to find Maya, Maya is the subject of an attempted murder - there are several homicidal parties, one of them a ghost, and it is up to Phoenix to sift out the truth. This trial (in more ways than one) did not change his opinion of the legal system, but increased his faith in himself and his ability to defend and protect his loved ones. Even his mentor, channeled by one of her relatives, tells him that she can't teach him anything more.
Unsolved mysteries: For the purpose of this RP, I am assuming that Phoenix, a single child (canon), was raised in a suburb of Los Angeles by his mother and father. He attended grade school, moved on to high school, and from there Ivy College (canon), where he majored in theater (creator interview speculation) and minored in law.
Age: 26
Canon point: I am taking Phoenix from the end of the third game (Trials and Tribulations). At the end of a very long and exhausting case, he's come home from the celebration party at some ungodly hour and crawled into bed. Unfortunately, that is not where he will wake up.
Personality: Phoenix, for all that he is a reasonable, clever man, is first and foremost an emotional person. He is virtuous in the truest sense of the word, living by virtues before goals or standards, and makes decisions based upon his heart before he makes them based upon utility or what is statistically favorable. While that at times causes him to leap before looking, it also means that he takes great chances on nothing more than faith and emerges with victories that a colder, more analytical man could not hope for. This also makes him extremely dedicated - many times he seems to give up on himself before giving up on a client, and he is literally willing to risk his life for those closest to him.
However, the fact that he is led by his heart does not make him a pushover. On the contrary, he possesses a keen (if occasionally sarcastic) wit, and clearly possesses a clean sense for the ridiculous even as he dives headlong into it in his attempts to untangle the mysteries he's faced with. He has outgrown the sentimentality of his college years and, while he still feels deeply about given people and situations, subsumes anger into determination and sadness into quietness. He is more prone to give a silent, sarcastic remark than to fire back at incendiary remarks, restraining the majority of his verbal retorts to light, sibling-esque banter with Maya. The less he's on familiar terms with someone, the less likely he is to jibe them, and even in his internal monologue engages in as much incredulous observation as derision.
Phoenix's demeanor is flexible, yet still rather stable - he progresses in a sympathetic way through all normal human emotions, both positive and negative. At the same time, though, he is capable of broad shifts in personality when the situation calls for it. When Maya's life is in danger, for example, he shows singleminded bravery when he is able to act, as well as relentless anxiety and depression when his hands are tied. He is passionate but also focused, and directs all his determination to determining the truth of the riddles he encounters in the course of the job. He never loses faith in the fact (and indeed, at points it doesn't even seem to occur to him) that there is one absolute truth, and it is within his ability to uncover it once he find the right method or tool.
Powers/Abilities: It's not really a power, but he has a magic charm (given to him by a friend) that lets him see, in the course of conversation, both a) when people are hiding something, and b) how good of a job he's doing ferreting the truth out of them regardless. However, that's more of an item than an intrinsic power, as other people who are given this item can also use its ability without any specialized knowledge, affinity, or training.