August 3rd, 1839
The pounding of horse hooves as they pulled carriages down cobbled roads was the sound of a heartbeat. Large groups of people bustled through streets that branched like veins. Smoke billowed out of the top of factory smoke-stacks; the smoggy breath of the city. New York City was alive.
Despite himself, Phoenix paused for a moment to drink in the scene. The man suddenly felt very overwhelmed, dwarfed by magnificent buildings. It's nothing like back home, he thought. Used to the weather of the south, even New York's bright summer warmth seemed cold. The sun had yet to rise, so the darkened streets had a chilly haze about it.
It was early in the morning. But it was not early enough.
What am I doing? Phoenix thought, jolting from his reverie, I'm going to be late! Quickly, he started up again in a stumbling sort of half-run, looking for all the world like an awkward fawn. He scrambled through a herd of people, slinging "Excuse me!"s and "Coming through!"s haphazardly. In his haste, he banged his suitcase on an old woman's flower display and knocked it over.
The young man flinched when he heard the unmistakable sound of glass breaking. "Sorry!" he yelped.
"Whippersnapper!" The old woman screeched after him, shaking her fist at his back. Phoenix didn't stop.
Turning the corner he saw the barred gate of another factory come into view. From behind the gates, he could see a woman. The woman stared unwaveringly back at him. Feeling self-conscious, Phoenix sped up. As he was drawing near his destination, the young man tripped over a portion of jutted-out sidewalk and pitched forward. His head banged against the gate's bars. "Oww..." Phoenix whined and dropped his suitcase, rubbing his forehead pathetically.
The woman was still staring at him, her mouth pressed into a frown. She was very pretty, with long brown hair and bangs on the right side of her face that nearly covered her eyes. Her brown, hard, scary eyes. "You're late," she told him bluntly.
"Sorry, I got lost." Phoenix grinned sheepishly at her in an attempt to break the ice. From the look on her face, he guessed that it wasn't working. If possible, she looked even more unimpressed,
"How? New York is laid out in a grid system."
"It is? I didn't know." I probably should've done some more research before I came here.
The woman on the other side of the bars uncrossed her arms and sighed. Thankfully, she dropped the scary look on her face. "What's your name?"
"Phoenix Wright. I moved here from Pennsylvania."
"Mia Fey. I'm the assistant overseer," The woman, Mia, returned. "It's a pleasure to meet you."
The young man's eyebrows raised. Is it really? Mia was pinching the bridge of her nose like it was the linchpin holding her body together.
Mia had taken out a key and started to unlock the chains on the company gate. Phoenix watched and decided it was safe enough to make conversation. "So, um, if you're assistant overseer, then who's the overseer?"
"Diego Armando."
"Oh." It was interesting that a Spaniard would be in such a high position of authority, but then again, this place wasn't known for being a typical factory.
There was a loud creak as Mia removed the chains and pulled the gates open, "You'll meet him soon enough. If you're good, he probably won't bite."
"How reassuring," Phoenix muttered. The young man walked inside the gates. Gosh. It feels like a prison.
Mia turned around when she was finished re-locking the doors. "Now, since you somehow managed to get lost and be late-" she shot Phoenix a look and he winced, "-I'll have to give you the tour quickly so we can catch up to the others."
"That's fine by me." The young man looked up at the factory for the first time.
The main building loomed over him. There wasn't much to be said for the factory's looks. It was the size that was truly impressive. At the first glance alone, Phoenix saw at least five buildings. It was almost like a miniature city. Except, in this city, the man in charge was an immigrant named Manfred von Karma.
Phoenix knew of him. Everyone knew of him. All throughout the states, Manfred's name could be heard; spat like a curse on every street corner. The German man moved to America about twenty years ago, and wasted no time establishing the most successful textile empire in the country. There were nasty rumors of all kinds about how exactly he became so rich and powerful, and Manfred von Karma probably deserved every one. The man kept to a strict standard, and his textile factories were notoriously dangerous, even more so than a normal factory.
Mia followed his gaze up to the sign above the door where Manfred's name was etched. "Ah, yes," she said, attracting Phoenix's attention again. She gave him a sardonic little smile. "Welcome to the von Karma Textile Mill."
Women, Phoenix thought, probably shouldn't be in the men's dormitory, right? The von Karma Textile Mills were known to be unorthodox. This was the only factory that Phoenix had heard of that employed both men and women alongside each other. But Phoenix had thought that surely Mia would have passed him off to a male worker for this part of the tour. He had thought wrong.
Even if Mia wasn't allowed, none of the men around were doing anything about it. Either the workers here simply didn't care, or, more likely, they didn't dare to challenge the woman. In honesty, Phoenix couldn't blame them. The assistant supervisor held her head high and walked with an air of authority that sent men scrambling to get out of her way.
"This will be your room," Mia opened a door to introduce him to a small, dingy room. Phoenix looked at her for confirmation and stepped inside.
He was greeted with an overpoweringly musty smell and the sound of continuous dripping from a leak in the ceiling. Most of the space was occupied by two beds, one of which had a third bed slapped on top of it. There was a candle sitting on a table that slanted to the right. A few planks were clapped onto one wall to make shelves. The other wall bore a jagged gash covered up by wood. I don't want to know what happened there.
Ignoring his apprehensions, the young man set his suitcase down on one of the beds. Mia watched him from the doorway. "You'll be sharing this room with two other new workers. I expect you'll meet them soon."
I hope they're not crooks. "Where are they now then?"
"In the main building, with the other new recruits. Mr. von Karma is going to give a speech, and then we'll meet the new boss of the factory." Phoenix's heart sped up just slightly at the words.
The assistant overseer gave the clock in the hallway a once-over. She started walking towards the exit, and Phoenix was quick to follow."If we hurry, we might be able to get there on time."
They were able to make it on time. Mia whispered "Good luck," and then opened the door to the main factory building. She ushered him inside and then left. The sound of the door closing behind him sounded loud and awfully final in the crowded hall. Wait, no, come back, Mia...
It was a large room that was mostly full of wooden benches and tables lined in neat rows. Everyone else had already filled in, so Phoenix hurried to take a seat next to a small, mousy-looking girl with light brown hair and spectacles. There was a small stage at the forefront of the room. On the stage were two men, including the man himself.
Manfred von Karma was as intimidating as rumors had described. He had long hair, slicked back and completely overtaken by silver. The businessman was donned in a dark, three-piece suit and darker greatcoat. Everything about him was menacing; from his coal-black cane to his top hat.
All eyes were on the factory owner as he stepped forward. "I shall be brief," the man intoned in an impossibly deep voice. The muttered conversation among the new arrivals instantly died down to let the factory owner continue. Manfred paused, sweeping the room with a dark-eyed gaze. Phoenix held his breath as the man's glance passed over him.
Seemingly satisfied with whatever he saw in the crowd, Manfred went on. "My factories have a legacy of perfection. Though this is an," his lips curled in distaste, "experimental factory, each and every one of you will be held to that same standard. Should any worker prove himself to be disgracing instead of perpetuating that legacy, he would no longer have any place at this company." Von Karma's lips curled into a smirk. "If you aren't capable of perfection, worker, I beg you to reconsider your employment."
There was a tense silence among the workers. People shot one another nervous glances, strangers united in mutual anxiety.
Without warning, Manfred stamped his cane once on the wooden floor. The sound boomed throughout the large room, causing several people to jump. Like clockwork, the second man on the stage promptly stepped forward to Manfred's side.
"My protege." Von Karma inclined his head to the man beside him, "He will be the one supervising this particular factory."
The other man looked to be in his early twenties. He wore a jacket in a ridiculous shade of red with a cinched waist and long coattails. A white stock with two decorative strips hanging free was clasped around his neck. Despite the age difference, the young man's hair was as gray as Manfred's, and his countenance no less forgiving. The handsome, chiseled features of his face were etched in an unemotional expression.
Phoenix's heart lurched and he let a quiet gasp escape him. It's him! Von Karma's protege had aged, - quite well, he might add - but the man was unmistakably Miles Edgeworth.
Author's Note: This is sin, sorry not sorry. I hope you enjoyed; I'm already ten chapters into writing this so updates should be smooth. I hope you guys like this new story! Come scream with me in the comments, or on my tumblr! I'm .com I have too many feelings about this completely stupid AU.
(fun history fact though: the industrial revolution is hard to pin down because it doesn't really have a set start and end time but i chose 1839 because pre-civil war the industrial revolution was a huge boom of textile manufacturing and i literally just didn't feel like writing about steel processing. also because i wanted it to be distinct from all the victorian aus and civil war aus. which i'm sure literally no one cared about but i wanted to clarify why this is set so early)