damned_institute | Day 37: Men's Showers

I wouldn't really call this a locker room. More like a bathroom with lockers. The place was uncomfortably crowded, with almost every adult male patient being hustled into the showers at once, but Phoenix wasn't as annoyed by the claustrophobic, milling throng of bodies as he might have otherwise been. Every extra person was one more person who might end up standing between himself and Edgeworth.

He knew that the prosecutor would have a fit if he found out about this. He'd known since he'd tacked that first response up on the bulletin board. And in a way, he couldn't blame him. Phoenix knew that he jumped into things all-or-nothing more often than most people. At the same time, he had some kind of reality testing. He wasn't going to learn the basics of how to defend himself and suddenly decide that he was Rambo.

He found an unoccupied locker in the southwest corner and glanced around, trying to gauge how long he could possibly stall in a locker room, looking as if he was expecting something, before people started looking at him strangely. It would have been easier if he'd known something of the description of the man he was supposed to be meeting. As it was, all he had was handwriting and a military rank, neither of which guaranteed any particular appearance.

It's not as if there was a better way to plan this, though. "Yeah, meet me by the lockers. I'll be wearing gray and a smiley face, just like about a hundred other guys."

[for Hughes]

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The past several minutes - spent listening to every word in Wright and Gavin's exchange - had left Edgeworth in a state that wasn't quite stunned silence and wasn't quite being too angry to put words to the emotion. It was in that grey area between the two, the one that held the distinct possibility of spiralling downward into something darker. The voice gave a rumble of warning, which he silently acknowledged and then dismissed.

He was long since done washing up, but he left the water on, closing his eyes and letting it run over him. It wasn't taking any of the tension out of his muscles, but it was at least helping to keep it from getting worse. That was the only reason he didn't turn the water off and leave with a glare.

The problem with that last statement wasn't implausibility, not at all. If anything, it was too plausible. It was all too easy to picture the situation happening; that moment where he would say, "If I can't do anything else for your father, at least I can make sure you're taken care of." Immediately after, there would be a flurry of phone calls. Am I among the people he'd immediately call? I'd hope so.

What was the purpose of telling him that? That was the question, really, and the one there wasn't an easy answer for. If it was a simple matter of wanting to turn Wright against him, there were a thousand ways Gavin could have tried to do that. Bringing in a piece of information like that, though? It didn't make sense as a method of turning someone against someone else.

...unless the objective wasn't so simple. It could be a matter of showing what happened and saying, "He won't protect you forever. And he won't be there forever. You'll be on your own, and the only person there will be the person behind your downfall."

There was that urge to yell, but this time, he only just managed to keep it in check. Wright's reaction would be the deciding factor.

Edited 2008-11-30 19:20 (UTC)

The serious conversation had been one thing - Edgeworth could handle that without losing his temper. What had turned him to glaring at the two of them in only-barely suppressed anger was that laugh. It was too familiar by far, and that...

What's this really about? Is it just trying to make me fly off the handle, or...no. It's not that simple. Yes, it's pushing every single one of my buttons. But it can't be so simple as just trying to make me lose my temper. It means something. But what?

The rationalization that this couldn't be a simple matter didn't make him calmer. If anything, it soured his mood further.

Day 37: Men's Showers

[reaction post, finally]

[reaction post, part the second]