#oh maybe gumshoe or ema is trying to get them away from the scene and they're all

[abluescarfonwaston]

Anyway Meet the Robinsons with 9 year old Phoenix (Filler last name here) the day before the class Trial. Trucy Woopsies back in time using a magic pocket watch for reasons. For conflict reasons they end up jumping Forward in time to the Edgeworth-Wright mansion. The pocket watch breaks and she frantically attempts to fix it.

When Pearl comes in and sees Phoenix. (Cue panicked screaming) 

She manages to shush Pearl and shove a beanie over Phoenix’s hair (the only way anyone can in canon recognize him).

“You going to have to go by Feenie for now. Don’t you dare tell anyone your real name or else- TIME TROUBLES. And keep that hat on. Also no lying. Everyone will Instantly know.”

“O-Okay?”

We have this huge house full of strange people who are all family??? And Love each other??? There’s Ema and her science experiments that cause a huge explosion. They end up in Trucy’s magic room. Kalvier’s guitar filled guest room. Kay’s Ninja (thief) room. Gumshoe and Maggie and their rugrats are running around setting up for something. Apollo is video calling in from a robot. There are two older women called the Wright’s constantly making puns and laughing. Maya is in the kitchen and offers Feenie some food. You remind me of my brother.

Just so. Much. Family. 

And at the heart of it all is this calm and serious grey hair man. And maybe he should be scary but honestly he looks like a dad. Phoenix isn’t well versed in what Dad’s look like. But he is. That man is Dad shaped. 

Anyway we get that conflict scene where Phoenix enters a room only to find something of value is shattered on the floor. Immediately someone enters the room after him and he’s terrified he’ll get accused again.

“A CRIME! INVESTIGATION TIME! :D!” 

And theirs just this whole Team of Family sweeping the crime scene for evidence. Ema, Kay, Gumshoe. Who broke Papa’s Defense trophy? Trucy trying to keep them from questioning Phoenix too hard. Athena pulling up her mood matrix and Apollo on the robotic skype machine with his bracelet like ‘okay tell us what happened.’

Phoenix gets nervous because it looks like he’s going to be accused again because he was found at the crime scene and then-

“Hm. Kay do you have any evidence that supports a verdict.”

“Not much I’m afraid.”

“Then I suppose since the Defense is out we shall have to rely on the prosecutors code. As it stands-”

“Wait!” His voice halted them. They turned to stare. “W-What if the reason I didn’t see the person who broke it was because...” Uh... “They weren’t a person?”

An eyebrow raised.

“L-Like a mouse? If it was small then I wouldn’t have seen it but it could have fallen off the shelf for ‘no reason!’”  

“... An interesting theory. Detectives?”

“...!”

“SQUIREL!” 

(Queue chaos involving a squirrel and Pess.)

(Squirrel is escorted off premises.) 

“Haha, well i suppose it’s time for the verdict. Not guilty.”

“You know Mr. Wright would really like you!” “Yeah, you were a little turnabout terror just now! Be careful or he’ll be asking you to intern for him!”

“Good job.” And a pat on the head from Edgeworth.

Well that’s the most positive affection Feenie’s had from an adult in years. Excuse him while he starts crying. Edgeworth is immediately concerned- as is everyone else.

“I’m sorry! I just! I wish I had a family like this!”

Edgeworth Immediately with the adoption papers. ‘Ah this will make a far better birthday gift than those absurd t-shirts. Wright loves adopting children’

The entire Family banding around Feenie like WE’RE YOUR FAMILY NOW NO TAKE BACKS. YOUR STUCK WITH US

Trucy and Pearl panicking in the background like ‘no no no no’

Trucy yanking Phoenix’s beanie off to reveal his hair. 

The gasp.

The pull away.

‘okay so i’m not from this time but- but no one cares about me back there so it’s fine! I can just stay here.’

“Oh Phoenix. I’m so sorry. But you have to go home.” 

“NO!”

Larry - the ‘villian’ of this story ‘helping’ Phoenix. (he’s being manipulated by Kristoph (maybe Dahlia? Hm) Phoenix seeing a world in anarchy because he ran away from the class trial that day. Because Phoenix wasn’t there to be saved by Edgeworth. To save Edgeworth. To save Maya. To meet Trucy. 

Them setting the time line right. 

Feenie getting to say goodbye - no not goodbye, see you later - to his future. Phoenix coming home from work to have that sweet moment at the end of the movie of ‘you keep fighting, you keep trying and loving and trusting and promise. It’ll get better.’ 

Feenie seeing Edgeworth and Wright holding hands. Matching rings around their fingers. Surrounded by family that loved them so much. Trucy - the light of his world - taking him home. Her hugging her Daddy to be goodbye. 

Larry reconnecting with the friends he’d thought abandoned him. Edgeworth stepping up and Defending Phoenix in the class trial. Gregory meeting Phoenix and being like ‘oh actually I know a couple that was looking into adoption. I could help them push it through.’ (The Wright’s. Two lovely women who adore Phoenix.)

Just keep moving forward.

#ace attorney #phoenix wright #miles edgeworth #wrightworth #trucy wright #meet the robinsons au #writing #that i discussed extensively in the tags of collab's post #with every day i'm more impressed by people who can write short things #not you now a 881 word outline for a fic they're NOT GOING TO WRITE (I don't know Trucy well enough sorry)

[marithlizard]

Ace Attorney: Rise From the Ashes (part 1)

A couple of people expressed interest in a writeup as I play through the game, so I thought I’d give quasi-liveblogging a try.   It might have come out to be too detailed - let me know if the result is amusing enough to go through the next part.  

(I knew this already, but wow liveblogging is a lot of work.   And it must take twice as much effort to do this for a show and to include screencaps.)

(I’ve tried three times now to put proper line breaks/spacing in, and they’re just not displaying, at least on desktop. I’m sorry.)

A brief,  stylized opening designed not to give away much, except that a creepy-looking doll is involved.

 Two months?  Phoenix, you haven't taken a single client since Maya left?    a) are you depressed, and b) how are you paying rent on the office?

Ookay, you're not going to tell us why you've been moping around. I don't think it's that you have a crush on Maya.  Are you just not able to function without a partner?   That's not great for your ability to survive, but I can sympathize.  

 New perky assistant, right on cue.  (A partner who isn't a young girl would be a nice change now and then. (But not Larry.  Anyone but Larry. In fact, I take it back, this girl with the pink sunglasses will do just fine.))

Oof,  Phoenix still not being able to say out loud that Mia's dead.

In the first two minutes pink-glasses girl has asserted that he's his female boss, the coffee boy, and 'better than nothing'.   Aha!  The problem with all the clients he turned down was that they didn't insult him enough.

Kid, you can't be more than sixteen, and you have silly face buttons  on your lab coat.  You are about as much a scientific investigator as Photography Girl last episode was a journalist.   ...But apparently you have a future job lined up in forensics, so you're more organized than she was.  And this world certainly could use more competent crime scene analysis.  

"I promised her I'd bring Mia Fey".  Huh.  Is Mia's murder not well-known to the public,  then, even though the Edgeworth case apparently got famous enough to earn Phoenix a bit of a reputation?

A murder charge with an eyewitness, and an assistant who "kind of hates" her sister the defendant.  Sounds hopeless, let's do it! Off to the Detention Center. 

...Did we just overhear the defendant threatening their terrified guard with a pay freeze?  Is she their boss? And if she's someone that high up, why doesn't she already have a better defense attorney?

I like Lana Skye's character design. She looks as though she should be starring in a Takurazuka revue show, swearing eternal star-crossed love to a princess.  

She insists she did it.  By genre convention we know that can't be the case; my first assumption is that she's being forced to cover for someone, blackmailed  or coerced  by someone higher up in the system.   But it would certainly be interesting if it  turned out she was covering for Ema.  

Must....resist...plotbunnies...

Oookay.  A prosecutor should certainly know ways to commit murder without getting caught, and this sounds like the opposite of those ways.    WHY does she claim she did this?  You're not even going to ask her, are you?  *headdesk*

Ema:  "Please ignore that totally gay statement by my sister,  because I certainly plan to!"

Lana: "No don't help me, go away go away go away go away go awa-oh fine."

Hmmm.  From Ema's description of the behavior change,  Lana has been being blackmailed or coerced for a long time now.

Time to go investigate the underground parking garage.

Attorneys aren't supposed to examine crime scenes, and defense attorneys aren't entitled to a copy of the police investigation reports.  What does a "normal" defense attorney in this world do for their clients then?  Always assume a loss and try to negotiate a plea bargain?  I wonder if we'll ever get to see one in action.

It's...a cop with a cowboy fetish?  Do police not have dress codes here?  Maybe they're waived above a certain level,  and some people take pride in cultivating a unique style to show off that they can.  It would explain Edgeworth.  

You are dramatically pretending to shave in front of us.  Also you just called Ema a baby cow.  Although you know her and seem sympathetic - I guess Lana brought her little sister to the office sometimes?  Not sure what I think of you, Jake Marshall.

I am revising my stance. Being Phoenix's partner on a case requires precise and narrow qualifications.  Specifically, just enough sense to stop him from doing something breathtakingly stupid, but not enough sense to take the badge firmly away from him and do the job themselves.   Ema fits the bill perfectly.

Ooh, new mechanic!  And an ID card number for a Bruce Goodman who dresses like a white-hat agent in Spy vs Spy. (I was trained on games that would require you to write that number down and remember it later, but AA will certainly be more forgiving.)  

Using the new mechanic on Phoenix's attorney badge,  I deduce that at some point this game it will be stolen.  

It doesn't explain Lana's supposed actions, but that red sports car does kind of scream "My owner is a jerk, stuff a body in my trunk."   Instead of a chalk outline, they seem to have outlined the hanging body with string?  Is that actually a technique, and how do they get the rope to stay put in precise outline?

And the cowboy gives them a hint.  So he's  on their side but constrained by rules?

Lady put the boobs away.  Why are you selling sushi in a negligee under a fur coat, at a crime scene?  And why would anyone trust food from someone whose nickname is "the Cough-Up Queen"?

Angel Starr, dominatrix lunch lady.   It says something that this is not the weirdest witness in an AA game so far.

She hates prosecutors, and therefore especially Lana. Not a trustworthy witness. But it's probably no fun to cater for a group of (relatively) wealthy and powerful people you despise.   Especially if they're smugly giving awards to each other as they eat lunches.  (Eeeevil lunches.  She probably coughs on them.)

"The rhythmic beat of Lana Skye's knife"...  very poetic, but didn't Lana say the victim was stabbed only once?

We can't get back to the car, phooey, so up to the prosecutor's office we go.

Pink...everywhere...no question whose office this is, even if one of his outfits wasn't framed on the wall.  (why do you frame an outfit?)     I see a very ugly trophy on the sofa, so he's the one who won the award.

Ema:  "this is the kind of room that just screams 'I can do the job'. Actually it screams 'I don't need to pretend to be heterosexual', but the two aren't unconnected.    

Is it just me or is that trophy broken off at the top?

Edgeworth did you just roll with being insulted and make a joke about it?   I'm so proud of you, you've clearly relaxed since your murder trial!

BWAHAHA of course it was Edgeworth's car.

Wendy the security guard from the Steel Samurai case is sending Edgeworth expensive presents??   a) that's both funny and a little sad,  b) how can she afford it,  and c)  he keeps and displays them which is very courteous.

WAIT did you - did this game just heavily suggest Gumshoe hangs out in the office a lot?  Twice, once when you look at the shelves and again when you look at the desk?  I don't ship it, but this is the point where I start to see why people do.

Awwww he's embarrassed about the trophy, that's cute.    So he's the one who "devours the evillest lunches of all",  hmm?   I wouldn't have thought the Cough-Up Queen's weird not-even-fresh lunches would appeal to Edgeworth's refined tastes.

Ema actually has a bit of a crush, from the way she's rhapsodizing about Edgeworth sleeping on the sofa.  d'awww.   And I definitely want to know the story behind the outfit.  Made by his mom and too precious to wear?

Edgeworth, no one thinks you did it.   Sheesh.  He certainly doesn't sound happy about having to prosecute Lana,  even though he believes she's guilty.  His car, his knife... it almost seems like this is a plot aimed at him, or perhaps a plot against Lana with a healthy dose of fuck-you-too-Edgeworth to it.

Huh.  Maybe it *is* aimed at him. I've been assuming all this time from his behavior on the stand that Edgeworth has indeed been messing with evidence to convict obviously innocent people, and also assuming that it's common practice in this corrupt justice system. (Much as it is in Japan and in the US).  But the way he's talking about rumors right now, it sounds more like he's being slandered.  And he thinks the award he was given was out of mockery.  Ouch.

So yes, the trophy is broken.   (In RWBY, you assume everything is a gun;  in AA, you assume everything is a murder weapon.  It probably broke when it was used to hit someone over the head.)

Evidence transferal day, huh?  Was the murder timed to draw attention away from a case being closed?    And Edgeworth parked his car only three minutes before Goodman was stabbed  and thrown into its trunk?    No way.  He was there for the murder, or more likely that's not when the murder happened.   (Is he being coerced like Lana?  I don't think so, but it's possible.)

Enter an idiot mailman with a bandaged hand.  And exit, with sniveling. What was that about?

And a hint to go investigate at the police station.  Is Edgeworth being friendly, attempting to signal something, or merely aware that the most efficient way to get rid of Phoenix is to give him a clue to chase?

The police department entrance, with some sort of plywood jester figure in front of it.  We're offhandedly informed that it took 30 minutes to get there from Edgeworth's office, which means that will be important later.

This is the creepy doll from the intro! It's clearly meant to be a mascot. Was it made by the sniveling mailman?  There's  a certain resemblance...

No, I should've guessed that Gumshoe made it.   I mean ... mechanically it's pretty clever for someone who's not a craftsman or engineer?  Moving articulated limbs and all.  It's just the aesthetics and design he shouldn't have been allowed anywhere  near.

Yes, yes it is odd that only the top-ranked people are being allowed to work on the case. Are they all in on it?    A patrolman in charge of the crime scene instead of a detective - that suggests Marshall is part of the conspiracy.  I'm thinking the dominatrix lunch lady is too.

Gumshoe is so happy about the prosecutor's award - Edgeworth probably didn't have the heart to say that for him it's a mockery.  Daww.  (Also there's something endearingly cheerful about  his hopping-caterpillar eyebrows.)   He's also being much more helpful than his superiors would want, probably just because he thinks of Phoenix as an ally in general now.  

Back to the parking lot, with a letter of introduction in hand this time.

I genuinely can't tell if the lunch lady is a sex worker, if she actually has multiple boyfriends, or if that's code for her professional contacts in whatever she's really doing here.   (And that's an interesting cultural bit, isn't it - any of those options seem possible, and I'm not expecting any of the characters to question her competence or morality because of it, not even in court.   If this was a US-made game my expectations would be...different.)

"Good men always die young"...I see what you did there, Marshall.    

Autopsy report confirms one stab wound.  Lana and the victim worked together on "a case a few years back", ding ding ding.   Someone didn't want the evidence for that case transferred. Or looked at. 

 Marshall used to be a detective but got demoted?  And he's lying about why he was assigned to the crime scene, and telling us Gumshoe is off the case because he's friends with Edgeworth.  The police chief, whoever he is, is now at the top of my suspect list.

 Happily, the game will let me do dumbass things like show off Goodman's ID card without consequences.  Marshall seems very uninterested in it and why it was found so far from the spot of the murder, which I take to mean "we have our official narrative, don't go messing it up with facts or evidence." 

Finally we can examine the car!  First up, Lana's cellphone.  The whole business about hitting redial and somehow not knowing that Ema's phone rang was weird.  Phoenix’s lie couldn't possibly have fooled Marshall, who is bizarrely claiming there's no way to know who the last call was made to.  It's an odd thing to conceal, even given the “no facts please we have our narrative” stance.  Maybe he's trying to protect Ema somehow?) 

 Marshall said the rumors about Edgeworth came from Lana.  And we have a note found  in the trunk:  6-7S 12/2, on a piece of Goodman's stationery.  

 Er, yeah, Ema, why didn't you mention your sister called you 3 minutes after the claimed murder time?  If Lana hung up right away that's hardly incriminating for either of you.

 End of Day One!  We are, as usual, completely unprepared for tomorrow morning's trial.

#ace attorney #rise from the ashes #ace attorney spoilers