Ivy Cesar: Ace Attorney

METIS

METIS

DESC: Sometime after the resolution of "Turnabout Casket," Athena and Ivy spend some time alone together in the office and get the opportunity to bond.

It was quite the slow day for the Wright anything Agency. Trucy was out prepping for Troupe Gramarye's next tour again, chaperoned by Phoenix, Apollo had a trial of his own, and Pearls was in class. It was only Ivy and Athena, and to Ivy's dismay, Athena insisted on working on her METIS Program, whatever that was. Phoenix suspected Ivy's boredom, and so he left her with a list of chores to be handled for the office, but Ivy wasn't in the mood to play errand-girl, so she opted to look around in curiosity.

"Athenaaaaa," she wailed. "I'm so boooooored!" she cried out.

"Good for you," Athena replied, reading off of a sheet of paper and inputting it into Widget's XL-Files Program. "If you're not going to do your chores, why don't you go join Apollo at his trial? I'm sure he'd like your help against Prosecutor Sabre."

"He already told me he wanted to face off against Sabre himself, something about dignity and malice or whatever. Plus, Sabre's a rookie. Apollo is a veteran. He doesn't need my help," Ivy replied. "Come ooooon, let's go look at stuff around the office," she pleaded. "Aren't you bored? Like at all?" she asked.

"Maybe, but I can't afford to be bored," Athena replied, switching between tabs and inputting new information. "I've got a lot of work ahead of me for the METIS Program."
"You know, ever since I've got here like two months ago, all you've been talking about is the METIS Program," Ivy said.

"Yes, exactly," Athena replied, crunching numbers. "Carry the one...multiply by .075..." she muttered to herself. "8.147..." she absentmindedly muttered, typing it in. "This prototype needs to be completed by May, so there's no time to lose," she explained.

"The prototype to what?" Ivy asked. "You haven't actually told me what METIS is about. Plus, isn't that the name of...?" Ivy trailed off, careful not to trigger any unpleasant memories for Athena.

The girl clad in a yellow and blue-accented suit stopped for a second, and whirled in her chair to face the newbie. "You know what? You're right!" she said with a smile. "I haven't told you about METIS yet, have I?" she asked.

Ivy's eyes unconsciously wandered to Athena's neck where Widget sat perched on her collarbones. The icon was blue, a darker blue than when he was idle around her neck. He had the wailing symbol etched on his face and Ivy knew that she had crossed a line. "Athena...I'm sorry, I...I didn't mean..."

"Mama..." Widget interrupted.

"Quiet, Widget!" Athena hushed. "It's no big deal, Ives, really!" Athena assured. "I always get choked up talking about my mother, or anything having to do with her."

"Then...how come you named the project METIS?" Ivy asked, rolling over the chair from her desk and spinning it around so that she was sitting in it backwards, but still facing Athena.

"Actually, I didn't name it," Athena said. "Simon did," she replied.

"Prosecutor Blackquill? The one who got convicted and then acquitted?" Ivy asked.

"That's the one," Athena replied. "You don't know much about me, but I grew up with him when he was just starting out as a prosecutor. He was under my mom's tutelage, learning about emotional manipulation."

"Oh! So that's why he's so good at prosecuting?" Ivy asked.

Athena nodded. "Yep! But, out of our shared...experiences, we've become a lot closer." It didn't take a degree in analytical psychology to tell Athena didn't want to say "trauma."