[OOC, TVK] The Velvet Key application
PLAYER
Nickname: Pteryx
Age: 33
Personal LJ: pteryx
Method of Contact: Email (pteryx * operamail * com), Plurk (Pteryx)
Characters Played: None!
CHARACTER
Name: Miles Edgeworth
Age: 26
Canon: Ace Attorney
Pull Point: March 18th, 2019 -- three days after Ace Attorney Investigations 1 and two days before Ace Attorney Investigations 2.
BACKGROUND
History: The world of Ace Attorney is defined most by its justice system, in which the police aren't particularly competent but powerful prosecutors direct investigations in order to pick up the slack. Defense attorneys are thought little of and face stiff odds due to prejudice and systemic bias, but a few defense attorneys stand out despite these odds generally by conducting their own investigations and excelling at cross-examination.
One of these standouts was Gregory Edgeworth; as such, his son Miles Edgeworth looked up to him in his youth and wanted to grow up to be a defense attorney. However, when Gregory faced the invincible prosecutor Manfred von Karma and managed to actually reduce the severity of the verdict handed out and prove that Manfred deserved a penalty for questionable evidence, this set off a chain of events that would change Miles Edgeworth's life forever. In brief, Gregory was killed in a locked room mystery known as DL-6 that stumped the police, which prompted them to take the unprecedented step of consulting a spirit medium, which in turn led to an innocent man being accused and then convinced by his defense attorney to use an insanity plea to get off the hook.
The nine-year-old Miles Edgeworth was traumatized by the murder, the trial, the media circus that resulted when the consultation was leaked, and nightmares displaying the possibility that he himself might have been the killer. He was soon taken in by Manfred von Karma himself and taught the ways of prosecution, both true and dirty, in Germany alongside one of Manfred's daughters, Franziska. Upon returning home, Edgeworth became an undefeated prosecutor himself, favoring cleaner methods than von Karma but not shying away from using most dirty tricks either, forged evidence being the one line he refused to knowingly cross.
While Edgeworth went undefeated for four years, his reputation as the "Demon Prosecutor" worried a childhood friend of his named Phoenix Wright. Phoenix became a defense attorney in order to face Edgeworth, dealing him his first two defeats. Shortly after that, Edgeworth himself came to be accused of the murder of the defense attorney for DL-6 -- and Manfred von Karma was the prosecutor. Though Edgeworth refused Phoenix's offer of help at first, he finally acquiesced when Phoenix demonstrated his investigative skills. This led to a trial that exposed the truth behind von Karma: that not only he was the killer in both the current case and DL-6, but he had tutored Edgeworth and performed the second murder as part of a plot to smear the Edgeworth name as further revenge against Gregory since the first murder just didn't satisfy him.
Miles Edgeworth was left shaken, not knowing who to trust aside from the police. When his next case showed that they too had betrayed his trust, the prosecutor vanished to reflect alone on his life and the true purpose of a prosecutor, leaving something that read much like a suicide note behind. When he ultimately returned, it was with a newfound understanding of the very purpose of court and rediscovered morals from his childhood. No longer would he treat court as his personal battleground; instead, he would help uncover the truth behind each case. In his next case alongside Wright, he helped his friend see things this way as well at the time when the defense attorney needed it most.
After this shared victory, Edgeworth spent several months studying foreign court systems on behalf of the Prosecutor's Office, returning only upon hearing that Phoenix was dangerously ill. While this turned out to be an exaggeration, Edgeworth found himself thrust into a bizarre and uncomfortable position: playing defense attorney for a day for a murder on the grounds of a spirit channeling dojo in order to give Phoenix time to recover. Edgeworth continued to help the investigation even after Phoenix recovered, and even despite the case's nature being one he didn't want to believe.
Rather than dwelling on the possibilities raised by this case, Edgeworth returned to Europe to complete his tour. On the flight back, however, he became embroiled in a case that was the first of a series that would ultimately lead him to an embassy that turned out to be at the center of a ring of smugglers and counterfeiters. In order to solve this case, Edgeworth was forced to admit to the limitations of the law and inwardly acknowledge the role of vigilantism in the pursuit of justice.
Personality: Even as a child, Miles Edgeworth was a stick-in-the-mud. Equally old is his tendency to not care what others think of him; his usual reaction to being given an award is, "I know the path I've walked. No one needs to tell me." For the most part, these traits have persisted into adulthood, which can cause him to be tactless and judgmental but allows him to weather the same. The one significant exception to these tendencies is his ineptly-hidden fondness of the Steel Samurai children's TV franchise.
Though capable of outbursts of emotion when thrown off-guard, Edgeworth's default demeanor is cool and distant, and he possesses a sharp and logical mind to match. He tends to keep his personal thoughts to himself, though if his emotions swell enough he's not quite as stoic as he'd like to think. DL-6 in particular left him haunted by nightmares for fifteen years, and its scars still haunt him -- most visibly in the form of crippling seismophobia and an unease when it comes to elevators, though we also see him express spiteful dismissal of the supernatural even in the face of proof of its existence (a hypocritical hangup that he'll need to get over fast in Prospero).
Edgeworth's charisma swings wildly depending on how in or out of his element he is. In court, he's smooth and witty, while in casual social situations, he's awkward and uneasy. How well he copes with situations in between tends to depend on how well he can frame them in work-like terms, and even then he may reflexively glare at inappropriate times. He's a diligent worker due to his serious attitude and the influence of his perfectionistic mentor. He takes his job as a prosecutor very seriously due to strong feelings about crime, truth, and now fairness, and identifies with it to the point that suicide crossed his mind when it became clear that "the path I've walked... hasn't been a just one."
Edgeworth tends to prefer solitude, though has ended up with friends and the occasional stalker despite himself. Trust doesn't come naturally to him; while this can be an advantage when it comes to prosecuting suspects, he's had to learn to put effort into trusting, in his words, "those who would use the power of law for good." Truth, he has come to realize, is his most cherished ideal despite Manfred von Karma's efforts at purging him of all idealism -- but it's also something he can't reliably find alone. However, his trust doesn't necessarily come paired with his respect; it takes intelligence and competence to earn that. As for those he considers enemies but aren't criminals, he's been known to exploit them even after his redemption.
Edgeworth learned from his mentor how to be a plotter and a planner. He does his best to learn everything that he can about each case, and has been known to use this information to manipulate the defense into helping him make his points. He once also used his behind-the-scenes thoroughness to try to grease the wheels of justice, but now takes the opposite stance of using it to present as thorough a set of arguments in court as possible, even to the point of refusing to accept premature verdicts. While he has recently learned how to improvise through knowing Phoenix and having had to stand in for him for a day, he doesn't resort to that tactic lightly.
GAME SPECIFIC
Arcana: Hermit
Justification: Edgeworth relies on planning and has learned caution in his work. He looked up to mentor figures in his past -- first his father, then his poor choice of Manfred von Karma. He has always been a rather private, solitary person, and von Karma encouraged this tendency in him in order to foster isolation in his engineered time of crisis. Since Edgeworth didn't trust defense attorneys and the police weren't particularly competent, he relied on himself to dispense near-unilateral "justice", sometimes based on groundless suspicions. When his entire life was thrown into question, he fled to reflect upon it and ultimately found answers within himself. Now he turns every case into a quest for the truth.
SAMPLES
First Person Sample:
[The following message is accompanied by a close-up image of a pair of round silver cufflinks with this design etched into them. They're apparently pinned to the end of a burgundy sleeve, and are small enough to make it unlikely that the design was hand-carved.]
While I can appreciate the craftsmanship of these cufflinks, I don't recall owning a pair like these. I have as little idea concerning how they came to be pinned to my suit as I do of how I came to be on this unfamiliar island. If anyone has seen a pair of silver cufflinks studded with a pair of half-carat garnets each or can shed light onto the origins of this pair, I would appreciate the lead.
Third Person Sample:
The electrical burns on the body in the middle of the soccer field and the scent of ozone lingering on it were as obvious to the prosecutor kneeling next to it as the fact that the victim wasn't breathing. Unfortunately, how he could have received them wasn't nearly so clear to Edgeworth; as such, his brow furrowed with well-worn lines. The burns were too widespread and severe to have come from a taser, the sky had been clear for the last three days, and there were no telephone poles or exposed electrical wires nearby nor any reports of power outages in the area.
There was another simple possibility, of course, but Edgeworth couldn't accept it as one. Not yet.
The body's location was the next thing that needed to be subjected to scrutiny. If this wasn't the spot where the victim had died, then perhaps the means of electrocution was something... admissible. While it would be next to impossible to tell signs of a struggle here apart from signs of a game of soccer, he could at least eliminate means of transport. Edgeworth stood and stepped back to take a snapshot of the body's initial state with his new cameraphone, then knelt upon his handkerchief again and carefully rolled the body from its face-down position to face-up -- and immediately recoiled wide-eyed, his cravat fluttering in the wake of his movement.
The body's face was entirely covered in a mask in such a seamless and form-fitting way that it seemed like a natural part of the victim's body -- more so when Edgeworth realized that he hadn't seen any signs of string or anything else that would normally hold a mask in place from behind.
Nickname: Pteryx
Age: 33
Personal LJ: pteryx
Method of Contact: Email (pteryx * operamail * com), Plurk (Pteryx)
Characters Played: None!
CHARACTER
Name: Miles Edgeworth
Age: 26
Canon: Ace Attorney
Pull Point: March 18th, 2019 -- three days after Ace Attorney Investigations 1 and two days before Ace Attorney Investigations 2.
BACKGROUND
History: The world of Ace Attorney is defined most by its justice system, in which the police aren't particularly competent but powerful prosecutors direct investigations in order to pick up the slack. Defense attorneys are thought little of and face stiff odds due to prejudice and systemic bias, but a few defense attorneys stand out despite these odds generally by conducting their own investigations and excelling at cross-examination.
One of these standouts was Gregory Edgeworth; as such, his son Miles Edgeworth looked up to him in his youth and wanted to grow up to be a defense attorney. However, when Gregory faced the invincible prosecutor Manfred von Karma and managed to actually reduce the severity of the verdict handed out and prove that Manfred deserved a penalty for questionable evidence, this set off a chain of events that would change Miles Edgeworth's life forever. In brief, Gregory was killed in a locked room mystery known as DL-6 that stumped the police, which prompted them to take the unprecedented step of consulting a spirit medium, which in turn led to an innocent man being accused and then convinced by his defense attorney to use an insanity plea to get off the hook.
The nine-year-old Miles Edgeworth was traumatized by the murder, the trial, the media circus that resulted when the consultation was leaked, and nightmares displaying the possibility that he himself might have been the killer. He was soon taken in by Manfred von Karma himself and taught the ways of prosecution, both true and dirty, in Germany alongside one of Manfred's daughters, Franziska. Upon returning home, Edgeworth became an undefeated prosecutor himself, favoring cleaner methods than von Karma but not shying away from using most dirty tricks either, forged evidence being the one line he refused to knowingly cross.
While Edgeworth went undefeated for four years, his reputation as the "Demon Prosecutor" worried a childhood friend of his named Phoenix Wright. Phoenix became a defense attorney in order to face Edgeworth, dealing him his first two defeats. Shortly after that, Edgeworth himself came to be accused of the murder of the defense attorney for DL-6 -- and Manfred von Karma was the prosecutor. Though Edgeworth refused Phoenix's offer of help at first, he finally acquiesced when Phoenix demonstrated his investigative skills. This led to a trial that exposed the truth behind von Karma: that not only he was the killer in both the current case and DL-6, but he had tutored Edgeworth and performed the second murder as part of a plot to smear the Edgeworth name as further revenge against Gregory since the first murder just didn't satisfy him.
Miles Edgeworth was left shaken, not knowing who to trust aside from the police. When his next case showed that they too had betrayed his trust, the prosecutor vanished to reflect alone on his life and the true purpose of a prosecutor, leaving something that read much like a suicide note behind. When he ultimately returned, it was with a newfound understanding of the very purpose of court and rediscovered morals from his childhood. No longer would he treat court as his personal battleground; instead, he would help uncover the truth behind each case. In his next case alongside Wright, he helped his friend see things this way as well at the time when the defense attorney needed it most.
After this shared victory, Edgeworth spent several months studying foreign court systems on behalf of the Prosecutor's Office, returning only upon hearing that Phoenix was dangerously ill. While this turned out to be an exaggeration, Edgeworth found himself thrust into a bizarre and uncomfortable position: playing defense attorney for a day for a murder on the grounds of a spirit channeling dojo in order to give Phoenix time to recover. Edgeworth continued to help the investigation even after Phoenix recovered, and even despite the case's nature being one he didn't want to believe.
Rather than dwelling on the possibilities raised by this case, Edgeworth returned to Europe to complete his tour. On the flight back, however, he became embroiled in a case that was the first of a series that would ultimately lead him to an embassy that turned out to be at the center of a ring of smugglers and counterfeiters. In order to solve this case, Edgeworth was forced to admit to the limitations of the law and inwardly acknowledge the role of vigilantism in the pursuit of justice.
Personality: Even as a child, Miles Edgeworth was a stick-in-the-mud. Equally old is his tendency to not care what others think of him; his usual reaction to being given an award is, "I know the path I've walked. No one needs to tell me." For the most part, these traits have persisted into adulthood, which can cause him to be tactless and judgmental but allows him to weather the same. The one significant exception to these tendencies is his ineptly-hidden fondness of the Steel Samurai children's TV franchise.
Though capable of outbursts of emotion when thrown off-guard, Edgeworth's default demeanor is cool and distant, and he possesses a sharp and logical mind to match. He tends to keep his personal thoughts to himself, though if his emotions swell enough he's not quite as stoic as he'd like to think. DL-6 in particular left him haunted by nightmares for fifteen years, and its scars still haunt him -- most visibly in the form of crippling seismophobia and an unease when it comes to elevators, though we also see him express spiteful dismissal of the supernatural even in the face of proof of its existence (a hypocritical hangup that he'll need to get over fast in Prospero).
Edgeworth's charisma swings wildly depending on how in or out of his element he is. In court, he's smooth and witty, while in casual social situations, he's awkward and uneasy. How well he copes with situations in between tends to depend on how well he can frame them in work-like terms, and even then he may reflexively glare at inappropriate times. He's a diligent worker due to his serious attitude and the influence of his perfectionistic mentor. He takes his job as a prosecutor very seriously due to strong feelings about crime, truth, and now fairness, and identifies with it to the point that suicide crossed his mind when it became clear that "the path I've walked... hasn't been a just one."
Edgeworth tends to prefer solitude, though has ended up with friends and the occasional stalker despite himself. Trust doesn't come naturally to him; while this can be an advantage when it comes to prosecuting suspects, he's had to learn to put effort into trusting, in his words, "those who would use the power of law for good." Truth, he has come to realize, is his most cherished ideal despite Manfred von Karma's efforts at purging him of all idealism -- but it's also something he can't reliably find alone. However, his trust doesn't necessarily come paired with his respect; it takes intelligence and competence to earn that. As for those he considers enemies but aren't criminals, he's been known to exploit them even after his redemption.
Edgeworth learned from his mentor how to be a plotter and a planner. He does his best to learn everything that he can about each case, and has been known to use this information to manipulate the defense into helping him make his points. He once also used his behind-the-scenes thoroughness to try to grease the wheels of justice, but now takes the opposite stance of using it to present as thorough a set of arguments in court as possible, even to the point of refusing to accept premature verdicts. While he has recently learned how to improvise through knowing Phoenix and having had to stand in for him for a day, he doesn't resort to that tactic lightly.
GAME SPECIFIC
Arcana: Hermit
Justification: Edgeworth relies on planning and has learned caution in his work. He looked up to mentor figures in his past -- first his father, then his poor choice of Manfred von Karma. He has always been a rather private, solitary person, and von Karma encouraged this tendency in him in order to foster isolation in his engineered time of crisis. Since Edgeworth didn't trust defense attorneys and the police weren't particularly competent, he relied on himself to dispense near-unilateral "justice", sometimes based on groundless suspicions. When his entire life was thrown into question, he fled to reflect upon it and ultimately found answers within himself. Now he turns every case into a quest for the truth.
SAMPLES
First Person Sample:
[The following message is accompanied by a close-up image of a pair of round silver cufflinks with this design etched into them. They're apparently pinned to the end of a burgundy sleeve, and are small enough to make it unlikely that the design was hand-carved.]
While I can appreciate the craftsmanship of these cufflinks, I don't recall owning a pair like these. I have as little idea concerning how they came to be pinned to my suit as I do of how I came to be on this unfamiliar island. If anyone has seen a pair of silver cufflinks studded with a pair of half-carat garnets each or can shed light onto the origins of this pair, I would appreciate the lead.
Third Person Sample:
The electrical burns on the body in the middle of the soccer field and the scent of ozone lingering on it were as obvious to the prosecutor kneeling next to it as the fact that the victim wasn't breathing. Unfortunately, how he could have received them wasn't nearly so clear to Edgeworth; as such, his brow furrowed with well-worn lines. The burns were too widespread and severe to have come from a taser, the sky had been clear for the last three days, and there were no telephone poles or exposed electrical wires nearby nor any reports of power outages in the area.
There was another simple possibility, of course, but Edgeworth couldn't accept it as one. Not yet.
The body's location was the next thing that needed to be subjected to scrutiny. If this wasn't the spot where the victim had died, then perhaps the means of electrocution was something... admissible. While it would be next to impossible to tell signs of a struggle here apart from signs of a game of soccer, he could at least eliminate means of transport. Edgeworth stood and stepped back to take a snapshot of the body's initial state with his new cameraphone, then knelt upon his handkerchief again and carefully rolled the body from its face-down position to face-up -- and immediately recoiled wide-eyed, his cravat fluttering in the wake of his movement.
The body's face was entirely covered in a mask in such a seamless and form-fitting way that it seemed like a natural part of the victim's body -- more so when Edgeworth realized that he hadn't seen any signs of string or anything else that would normally hold a mask in place from behind.