The Long Awaited Court Trial

[cutslikeasword]

Who: cutslikeasword, wright_idea, Various NPCs, anyone else who wants to participate (Turn order will be posted here, too.)
What: Phoenix's trial.
Where: Los Angeles Court House, Phoenix and Edgeworth's timeline.

Comments

[wright_idea]

Phoenix is brought to the courthouse himself about a half-hour later. The guards treat him a little more roughly than is probably warranted. Guess they're still bitter about that whole "escaping and disappearing for a couple weeks thing, he thinks to himself.

He's a little surprised to see Edgeworth already there when he arrives. "Geez, are you always so prompt during cases?" he asks, rubbing the back of his neck. Phoenix can't count the number of times he's squeaked into a trial on his own end, possibly due to his lack of car.

He looks around, feeling awkward. Usually I'm the one that's standing here waiting to defend someone. "Are you sure you're up to this? I'm telling you, being a defense attorney's a whole different beast than being a prosecutor," he says.

[pw_drive]

Court has reconvened. Or rather, is in the process of. People begin filing back inside to reclaim their seats, the Judge is sitting at his stand, and addresses the noisy crowd with a few pounds of his gavel. "Order! Order, I say!" The crowd silences to a dull roar, and the Judge looks down as seriously as he can at the prosecutor who stands before him once more.

"Mr. Edgeworth, the court has considered your request." The judge pauses. "Despite the odd request, this case has taken an odd twist, and so we will grant it, on one condition."

The judge straightens up in his chair, eyes narrowing.

"If Mr. Wright is proven to be innocent, and you fail to show significant evidence for your whereabouts during this, you will be tried and stripped of your license. Do I make myself clear, Mr. Edgeworth?"

[cutslikeasword]

To say that Miles didn't expect this would be a total lie. His hands remain at his sides and, although they clench nervously into fists, his expression remains one of steeled indifference as he nods at the judge's words.

"I understand. Thank you, Your Honor."

He turns and heads to stand at the defense's podium.

[wright_idea]

[Oh. Spiffy. No pressure, your honor, really.] Phoenix stands at the sidebar, the familiar doom and gloom that always floats over him during trials out in full force. And he's not even the one playing the defense this time.

He hisses to Edgeworth as he steps up beside him, "I REALLY hope you know what you're doing on this. If you lose your job because of me..." He doesn't finish that thought. He's pretty sure they both know how Phoenix feels about this.

[cutslikeasword]

Miles waves Phoenix off a bit dismissively, distracting himself by going through the court records. He doesn't want to let those thoughts cloud his judgement. One thing at a time.

Once the judge notices that Edgeworth is situated, he blinks a bit and clears his throat. "Err.. heh. Well, anyway.. the trial will now begin. Er... once the chief prosecutor claims his stand, of course."

Miles blinks, and his look of indifference faulters a moment into one of faint confusion. [Chief prosecutor?] There wasn't one when he left..

When the prosecutor comes out, Miles recoils back. "...You!"

[pw_drive]

The balding man in a simple grey suit blinks behind his glasses at the two behind the defense stand, before he smirks.

"Oh, Mr. Edgeworth. How nice it is to see you alive." Payne pushes his glasses up on his nose. "And, standing on the opposite side of the room. I suppose this can count as your yearly review, hmm?"

[wright_idea]

There's a blank look for a bit as Phoenix tries to remember who this guy is. [Er... Will... Wayne... what was it again?] He shakes his head. Either way, from what he's seen of the guy, he's hardly "Chief Prosecutor" material. Which probably explains Edgeworth's reaction, really.

On the other hand, there's some part of him that feels relieved to see this guy playing the prosecution. He's not entirely sure why.

[cutslikeasword]

What the hell? What. The. Hell. This is a joke, right? There's no way the prosecution's office could be this stupid. Sure, Payne might have been the only prosecutor there for an extended period of time, but..

But Payne?! Augh.

It takes a great deal of effort, but Miles becomes serious once more - deadly serious. "What a relief, Mr. Payne. For a moment I thought the state was going to send out someone experienced." He looks down and organizes the court record: categorizing everything because he's just that nervous while waiting for Payne to make his opening statement.

[pw_drive]

Ignoring the glare from the prosecutor-now-defense attorney, Payne addresses the court with his report: how on the night of the murder, Mr. Phoenix Wright was arrested at the murder site, and how nobody else was spotted at the scene and all the evidence points to him.

After addressing the court, Payne smirks, and manages a chuckle. "Perhaps if you were a bit more responsible, Mr. Edgeworth, you would have been promoted."

[wright_idea]

Phoenix still can't quite remember what Payne's first name is, but "Asshat" is increasingly sounding like a suitable candidate. [Yeah, you see how responsible you are when you have a psycho holding your ass hostage, Mr. Payne,] he thinks rather uncharitably.

He focuses on this annoyance, because if he thinks too much about how things are stacked against him, he's just gonna make himself pass out.

[cutslikeasword]

Miles scowls at the insult, but brings no attention to it. Let Payne talk. The look he shoots the prosecutor as he calls his first witness, however.. Oh, if looks could kill.

Folding his arms, he shifts his eyes to a detective, one he doesn't remember seeing. His mild trails to Detective Gumshoe, and he frowns. Once he resolves the matter with Phoenix, he'll have to focus on getting Gumshoe's job back, since Miles was the reason he lost it to begin with...

That's two people now with jobs of more importance than Edgeworth. Even if Miles treated Gumshoe like crap, it is distressing to know he got demoted over this case.. and anyway, to know someone else cut the Detective's pay makes him feel oddly possessive

[wright_idea]

Phoenix stares at Edgeworth blankly, as if he should KNOW how to do this already. Then he mentally reminds himself, [Oh, right. Prosecutor. No experience at this. Boy, never thought I'd see the day I'D be teaching somebody about this.]

He straightens himself up. "Well, if you didn't find any contradictions, you just press him on every single detail until you DO find a contradiction. That's what Mia always taught me to do. I'm not dragging things out in court all the time on a lark, you know," he explains, raising an eyebrow. "I mean, you know I'm innocent, right? So there's gotta be SOMETHING in there. It just needs dragging out."

He shrugs. He hates doing that to poor Detective Gumshoe, but that's law for you. NOBODY is safe from looking stupid on the stand.

[cutslikeasword]

Miles blinks a bit at the look of total 'duh' that he momentarily got from Phoenix. Luckily the defense attorney explains what he's supposed to do next, and the prosecutor twitches the corner of his mouth in a faint scowl.

[Such a waste of time,] he mentally sighs, but it is what defense attorneys did. Wondering how his father handled all this 'trivial' nonsense, he turns to glare at the detective. And he said he was going to do it, so.. might as well go all out.

The detective on the stand isn't Gumshoe, so he didn't care about making him feel like an idiot.

"HOLD IT!"Miles challenges the witness on everything: the time it took the police to get there (3 minutes), to the witness who called in (Miles pressed on what she said she saw and got an OBJECTION! from Payne, which he claims is 'hearsay' and irrelevent for the current witness, earning the Judge's favor there) and even the 'hard evidence': since the gun was at the scene, Phoenix was the only one there, he must have shot it

[wright_idea]

Phoenix blinks at Edgeworth. "Come on, Edgeworth! Look at the photos! There's a big hurking contradiction there already!" he hisses. "And if you're having problems, think outside the box. Don't think about what's there, think about what's NOT." At least, he hopes he knows what he's talking about. At the very least, when he thinks about what little he remembers of that night, he can already think of something amiss.

[cutslikeasword]

Miles gives Phoenix an odd look. Well, he knows that the murder scene's all fragged up, if he remembers correctly.. Most of that night is a bit fuzzy, so maybe he's wrong.

But Phoenix seems intent on pushing forward with this, and despite Miles' apprehension of plunging into something he's unsure about, he returns his eyes to the officer at the stand.

[Think about what isn't there...] He reminds himself. Hmm.

"OBJECTION!"

The judge blinks at him. "Is something wrong, Mr. Edgeworth?"

[Good question.] "Of course there is, Your Honor." He looks at the evidence again. What's not there.. what's not there..

..wait a second.

"The map is incorrect, Your Honor! The murder could not have happened in this location!" Adding force to his voice to hopefully mask his uncertainty, Miles keeps his expression steeled and determined as he speaks.

Payne just seems amused. "Oh, really? Do you have proof to back up your claim, Mr. Edgeworth?"

Miles grits his teeth, clenching his fists against the table. [This is insane.] One hand reaches out,

[wright_idea]

Phoenix grins. "Now you're getting the hang of it! Act first, and the thinking comes later. That's being a defense attorney," he says. "It's all about buying the time you need to look closely at things."

Though he half wonders if revealing the tricks of the trade is gonna work against him in court later. Oh well. Too late to worry about it.