015 [Prose/Private Text/Audio/Action]

[miniworth]

The snow was soaking through his socks, freezing his toes, and his legs and hands were numb from the cold, but Miles paid no heed. As it was, the child hardly noticed anything other than his task at hand. If he was paying attention, he might have noticed the stinging pain in his fingers as the frozen dirt and rocks cut through the skin, drawing blood. But he knelt, unaware, on the ice, relentlessly clawing at the frozen ground as he had for the past two hours, his jaw set and his eyes narrowed as he worked. The hole he was digging slowly grew deeper, but it wasn't until a while  - half an hour, perhaps - later that Miles pulled away from it.

Without missing a beat, the boy straightened to standing, moving automatically to where he'd left his bag, a distance away, under one of the trees that circled the glade. Reaching into it he pulled out a small wooden frame, pausing only to take a look at the portrait resting inside it. He could still remember the look of sad surprise that crossed Phoenix's face when he had asked the man to draw it for him last night.

"What is it for, Miles?" The question had been soft, hesitant, confused, and ultimately went unanswered.

But even then, Phoenix had sketched it for him: a simple but beautiful portrait of Gregory Edgeworth. Muttering a soft thanks under his breath, Miles carried the frame back to the little hole, kneeling back down.

He clutched the picture closer to his chest as he stared at the makeshift grave he'd dug. "I don't know how long I'll be here, but this way, I'll have some place to come visit you every year, right?"

He carefully lowered it into the ground and reached for a handful of the dirt piled next to it, filling the hole again. As he patted down the last of the soil he became aware of something brushing against his leg, and Pip appeared by his side with a small bunch of flowers clamped between his jaws. Scratching the Growlithe behind his ears with a soft smile, Miles took the bouquet from him.

"Isn't it a bit too late for a Christmas gift, boy?" He still remembered the shopkeeper's question as he brought the white lilies to the cashier, the look of surprised realization dawning on her face when she saw the black ribbon the boy tied around the stems. "It isn't for Christmas."

Humming an obscure, low tune that he recalled hearing at his father's funeral, Miles gently placed the flowers down on the mound of dirt. Pip tried to scramble onto his lap but he instead picked up the tiny Growlithe, getting to his feet and stepping back, taking a long look at the grave he had just constructed.

It was a pathetic little thing.

Small and insignificant, already half hidden and unknown to anybody but the one who created it, Miles. After all, Gregory Edgeworth didn't even exist in this world. There was only one person who needed to visit this grave, and that would be Miles himself, the late lawyer's son.

"...I wish I could tell you that I know what I'm doing."

After the DL-6 Incident, every normalcy of his life back home had been torn apart, turned inside-out, and tossed like a dirty rag into the laundry where it was thrown around and twisted. What was left was nothing more than bits and pieces of what was lost: memories, albums, tiny things that could never add up to be enough to fill up the void that used to be his father. Remnants of a family that was never whole to begin with.

"I wished - I still sometimes do - I..... sometimes wish it wasn't you that died that day." He paused, waiting for an answer that he knew wouldn't come. "Maybe a lot of us would have been happier if -- if it was me instead. I know Mother would be. She said so."

"You look so much like your father."  The feel of her cold finger ghosting over the skin of his dry cheeks, the tears running down her face, the look of utter grief and resentment in her eyes as she held him at arms' length. "You look so much like him, but you'll never, ever be him." 

"I came here and found out that it wasn't me that killed you."

The bullet I fired didn't hit you. It wasn't me, that stole everything from my mother, from myself. It wasn't.. it wasn't..

"It was Mr. von Karma, the prosecutor you were always trying to catch. He-- he shot you, because you proved that he was forging evidence." Out of revenge, for defiling his perfect court record. It was cruel, and unfair, and the thought sent - not only tremors of anger coursing through his veins - a chilling sense of fear down his spine. This man had, without hesitation, murdered a man for the sake of his pride... and he was also going to take Miles, too. 

"He wants me to live with him. Mother -- she agreed." Gulping down a growing lump in his throat, he continued slowly, "I don't know when I'll be going back to California, but once I do, I won't be able to live with her." If he hadn't ended up in Johto, Manfred von Karma would have had custody over him by the end of that month. 

Phoenix's words still rang loudly in his head.

"Killing your father...it wasn't enough. Not for him. 

"He wanted to turn you into everything your father wasn't, and then, finally, send you spiraling down..........it was horrible. "

Pip began to wriggle restlessly in his hold, and Miles let the Growlithe put himself in a more comfortable position without completely letting go of the Pokémon. A moment later, he faintly felt the puppy licking at the deep cuts on his fingers, but he barely noticed, his eyes glued tot he lilies.

"...............I came here to make a promise." 

His father had ended his life in vain: no deciduous  victory, killed at the hands of a man he had finally started tightening the noose around. And the same man was now trying to take Miles, raising him into his revered father's foil... desecrating the justice that Gregory Edgeworth had lived his whole life for. And in the future, if Miles didn't do anything now, the twisted circus would only end with the death of another man, everyone dancing to the crude music of revenge like puppets on strings.

He wouldn't let that happen.

"I'll go to Germany with Mr. von Karma." A pause there, as he bit his lip, furrowing his eyebrows. "There isn't much I could do about that, so I'll go with him. Whatever happens, I'll accept it.. maybe I will become a prosecutor after all. And I  don't even know how I'll be able to pull it off... but I'll stop him."

The silence seemed to have grown heavier then. Pip was now curled up in his hold, having tugged the end of Miles' blue scarf around his tiny body. There was no wind, and even the music that played unceasingly in this world seemed to have grown softer in that moment, as Miles closed his eyes and repeated the words he'd been uttering ever since Detective Gumshoe told him the truth about his father's death:

"I won't let anybody get hurt because of my powerlessness ever again." Saying these words to his father's grave made the vow sacred. "I'll find you justice.. and I'll get stronger, so I can protect the people that I care about now. I-- I met Phoenix and Larry again, here. They're a lot older than me now though... and Ken. He's a lot like me... I want to be able to help him, too, as a friend.

".....I'll do things right. I promise."

A long, shuttering inhale. And then exhale. Inhale. Exhale again. It was getting harder to breathe, a lump growing in his throat that was impossible to swallow, a stinging feeling in the corners of his eyes that he couldn't blink away. 

".....You know.. I think you'd really like it here," he choked out. "I have a dog here that I named Pess -- because in the end we weren't able to adopt that puppy. Pess is really big now, taller than you, and she can breathe fire. She's a Pokémon, like from the game Larry showed us when I went to his house that one time.."

He didn't know how strong the powers of whatever it was that brought him here was, but one thing he knew was that time was its toy, something it manipulated without much effort. It was able to reunite Miles with his friends from the future -- perhaps... no. It would definitely be powerful enough to bring Gregory Edgeworth from before his death.

"Phoenix says he met his daughter, from his future.. her name is Miss Trucy, and she's a really nice person. They.... they really get along well."

He'd almost been jealous of Trucy Wright, back when they were together in Violet City. Watching her frolicking around with her father.. it wasn't her fault. It definitely wasn't her fault, nor anybody's for that matter. But Miles would not deny how strongly he wished that he could see his own father again.

"I--" His voice cracked. "I wish you were here. I miss you so badly...." 

His sobs did not die for a very long time after those last words. Kneeling in the snow, hidden from the world in a small glade tucked away into the corner of Route Thirty-Five, Miles was alone here, with nobody to find him. He preferred it that way. He didn't want anybody finding him in such a state.

He just sat there, for the longest time, tears rolling down his cheeks and onto the ground beneath him, his body shaking from the uncontrollable sobs until, eventually, exhaustion one over and he tossed himself over onto his side, making sure not to jostle Pip too much. The occasional sniffle was all that escaped him as he lay there, recalling that he hadn't slept soundly at all for the past week.

Just a short nap, he thought, even as somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew he'd regret sleeping on the snow later.

pqpq

"---Achoo!"

.......He knew he'd regret that nap. 

Shaking the snow out of his damp hair, Miles scrambled to his feet, staggering back as his head spun from the sudden change in latitude, his earlier sobbing, and the on-coming cold. Pip was still asleep curled up in his scarf.

The boy's gray eyes darted around the glade quickly, his sleepy mind trying to remember where he was, until they finally landed on the small grave he made. The sight of it sobered him immediately.

Miles raised an arm to rub his eyes with his fist, but clenching his hands reopened the scabs on his fingers, and accompanied by a sharp pain, they began to bleed again. With a sigh, the boy reached into his pocket to search for his Gear.

Pulling the device out of his hand, he checked the time.

4:49 P.M.

.....Well, snap.

He'd been asleep for much longer than he thought he had. In fact, the sky overhead was already growing dark. A small panic seized him as he realized how angry his roommate would be when he returned, having disappeared from the room while Phoenix was still asleep, and he still had to call Misaki when he returned to Goldenrod, too..

And there was somebody else he had to contact. His memory flashed back to that day in the dark hotel during the power outage, the tall man in who was walking through the building for exercise, the one with the scar running down his face...

"I need to hurry."

Still holding the sleeping pup against his chest, Miles hurried to grab his bag slinging it over his shoulder. He momentarily thought about pulling on his gloves to hide the cuts when he reached Goldenrod - the pair he received from Ken was inside his bag - but decided against it. He didn't want to get them dirty with the blood. Throwing one foot forward, followed briskly by the other, he began to march out of the clearing --

and stopped.

And he tuned to take one last look at his father's grave.

"....Good-bye, Dad. I'll-- I'll come visit again."

And with those last words, Miles Edgeworth spun on his heels, walking away.



Private Text to SHELLY DE KILLER at 5:01 P.M., sent after he returns to Goldenrod.

Mr. Doe: you told me before that you could help me get stronger.  

I think I've come to a decision... but does your offer still stand?



Private call to MISAKI TAKAHASHI at 5:04 P.M. after returning to Goldenrod.

--- Misaki?

I-- I'm sorry if the call is kind of late. I... just wanted to say that I'm all righ-- choo!

.....Well, I might've caught a cold, but I'm mostly okay..




[[ OOC; Action posts can be made to Miles after he's returned from his trip to Route Thirty-Five! He'll be wandering around the city with Pip, who finally woke up, frolicking around his feet and his fingers still looking like they had an accident with a cheese grater (for those who TL;DR-ed, the kid was digging in the frozen ground with his bare hands for two hours just to make his daddy-o a makeshift grave, so, uh.... yeaaaah) He's also got the tired look of someone who cried himself to sleep.... on the snow, with a nasty cold coming in to hit him within the next twenty hours, so expect some general crankiness from the kid. \(O.o)/ He's also kind of soaking wet.



It is also 2:30 A.M. here and I am GOING TO SLEEP I am sorry for my terrible writing today and any grammar errors. /o-orz A-also feel free to prose back or action post? ;; ]]

Comments

[text]

[shellderkillder.livejournal.com]

((OOC: A-Also I was not expecting to feel so sad this morning. ;_;))

[text]

[miniworth]

There are things I want to protect, and lines that I am willing to cross in order to do so.

I want to become stronger.

[[OOC; I-I'm sorry ;-; ]]

[text] Also, shouldn't you be in bed? :T

[shellderkillder.livejournal.com]

[text]

[miniworth]

I can meet up with you now, if it isn't inconvenient for you. I'm afraid I might be sick by tomorrow, and then I wouldn't be allowed to leave my room..

[text]

[shellderkillder.livejournal.com]

[... Better not to ask too many questions through here.]

[action]

[yattagarasu.livejournal.com]

[ someone has been wandering around Goldenrod herself, with Byrne nestled up close to her neck. Kay's rather touched that her partner's willing to stay out in the cold when she knows that he dislikes it even more than she does. But even Kay needs to get out for some quiet time, which is exactly what she's doing before she spots the miniaturized Mr. Edgeworth. ]

Miles, hey!

[ any pensive air about her is vanishing as she lifts a hand and trots forward to greet him-- though she'll notice the hands-- ]

Whoa, what happened?!

[action]

[miniworth]

-- Kay!

[Miles is genuinely surprised to see her, and he automatically raises a hand to greet her back before he hears her next words. Remembering the terrible state his hands were in, he lowers it, sheepishly curling and uncurling his fingers at his sides.]

I-- I fell, earlier...

[action] GO TO BED

[yattagarasu.livejournal.com]

Hold it!

[ ... in a booming prosecutor voice, too, Daddy would be so proud. ]

I've seen a lot of lies, but that's gotta be one of the worst ones ever. I mean, that beats Gummy's lying! You have to work to be that bad!!

[action] I AM NOW THAT THE ENTRY ISN'T HTML BREAKING ON ME nainai /slinks awayyyyy

[miniworth]

[Yelling at kid in this state is a bad idea Kay -- watch him flinch rather badly at your exclamation. Your future pressing seems to make him shrink to a size smaller than he already is, but it also seems to wear away at his desire to keep on lying... and so he just weaves his fingers together, rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet, head hanging in shame.]

I-I'm sorry..

[usedrage.livejournal.com]

[... .... WELL SHIT, MILES. THE FUCK DID YOU DO TO YOURSELF?!

Kirby shall forever be the deus ex machina of the shotas meeting, and barely misses barreling into him by inches before she spins around and plops herself down firmly in front of Miles with a pleased bark.

Ken is not far behind :Db]

Miles--

[And he's cut off when he sees him]

... Miles-san?

[miniworth]

[....TERRIBLE, SAD THINGS?

Seeing Kirby catapulting out of nowhere means that Pip will stop running around and settle himself down besides her! In the meanwhile, Miles spots the Growlithe as well and smiles, patting her head as he looks up at Ken's voice. ]

..... Hi. [Is pretty much all he can say.]

[usedrage.livejournal.com]

[And Kirby licks the side of Pip's head, watching their trainers.]

... [... He wants to ask. Very, very badly. But it's none of his business and this time he's sure of that.]

... You should come to the Center, they'll get infected... [And you'll get sick, but :|]

[miniworth]

[Pip nudges Kirby back with his nose, his eyes on their trainers as well.]

[And Miles looks down at his hands, as well as his soaking jacket.]

.....I guess I'll have to. I can't go back to the hotel like this..

[ooc]

[cheapblusuits.livejournal.com]

<sub>[Just popping in to say

A-AAWWW, MILES. ;~;

Don't worry bro your old pal Phoenix will be emoing right along with you...in a totally different part of town, of course, and once I get around to writing his own tl;dr prose thing...YES.]</sub>

[ooc]

[miniworth]

[G-good luck with writing it! Mine took me three days and three drafts I WISH YOU SO MUCH LUCK D8 ]

[ooc]

[cheapblusuits.livejournal.com]

<sub>[AND HERE I AM TYPING IT UP ON THE FLY, YEEEAAHHHH--

--btw, I'm definitely coming to the movie tomorrow! :D]</sub>

[ooc]

[miniworth]

[You're probably better at improv writing than I am then. /OTL

ALL RIGHT AWESOME UM.
I'll probably just tell my parents to drop me off at 11 lmao.]

[voice]

[usaginouke.livejournal.com]

Miles-kun! I'm glad to hear back from you.

...That sneeze sounded pretty bad. I'm glad you're doing alright, but be sure to drink something hot. And take a hot shower soon too.

[audio]

[miniworth]

[N-not going to mention that he'd been asleep on snow for a few hours...]

I'll make sure to do so. [He actually sounds cold over the phone, his voice shuttering a bit.]

[audio]

[usaginouke.livejournal.com]

Yeah... maybe you should do that now. The shower, I mean. It'll really help to beat back a cold.

[audio]

[miniworth]

Achoo!

I'm going back to the hotel room now, so I'll do that..

[action] 1/2 God this made me so sad ;____;

[usedsubstitute.livejournal.com]

_{[Iris was wandering around town herself exploring the sights. She had been exploring the shops, although she hasn't bought anything. She hadn't been expecting to run into one of her friends, but she was overjoyed when she spotted Miles and Pip.]} Miles! _{[Iris hurries over and pulls the child into a warm hug.]} It's been so long since I've seen you...

[action] 2/2

[usedsubstitute.livejournal.com]

_{[And then she notices his hands. They look awful and she winces from the sight of them. She gently takes one into her own hands, and looks it over, trying to be as gentle as possible.]} M-Miles what happened? _{[Something tells her-maybe his hands, or maybe it's the look of grief on his face-that something was horribly wrong.]}

[action]

[miniworth]

......

[Iris was one of the last people he wanted to see.]

It's nothing.

[He gently pulls away from her, careful not to let his cuts bleed onto her clothes, curling his fingers and holding his hands against his chest -- unconsciously, in a gesture that suggests self-defense, self-preservation. He didn't want her to ask... he didn't want to answer any questions... he turns his body away slightly, but his eyes stay on her, sad and quiet.]

I'm fine, Miss Iris.

[action]

[usedsubstitute.livejournal.com]

_{[Iris looks a little upset. She knows this isn't nothing but...something was wrong. And if Miles didn't want to tell her then all she could do was try and help him feel better.]}

A-Alright. _{[Her voice is shaking slightly. She doesn't like the look in Miles' eyes, the way he was shielding his hand against his body. What could have happened?]}

If you're sure...._{[There's a long pause before-]} It's wonderful to see you again! We only met briefly before....

_{[Her attempt to change the subject is poorly concealed but at this point she doesn't care. She just wants to make Miles feel better, and if he needs to think about something else for a while, then so be it.]}