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an inanimate insanity x professor layton au...

cuthbert (steve cobs) is an incredibly intelligent and wealthy inventor who invented numerous technologies influential in the modern age - but he never got the recognition he deserved for his ideas, or so he felt. he wanted someone to finally worship him like the god he thought himself to be, so he used his skills to create a synthetic human, an automaton nearly indistinguishable from a real person: the only difference was that this person could be brought back from "death" by his creator. this automaton was infused with and powered by the shimmering shell cuthbert had once discovered, a relic belonging to an ancient civilization on a remote island which its people had once used as a source of perpetual energy.

this perfect automaton was named merle phenom (mephone), and was made to be cuthbert's son and inferior, always looking up to him. but over time, it was apparent that merle's code was faulty: he did not respect cuthbert in the way he desired. instead of simply admiring the skill that went into his father's inventions (including himself), merle wanted to learn that skill for himself. to cuthbert, this was like man wanting to be god: it was utter hubris, utter blasphemy. he soon grew sick of his son and sent him away from the house. but as he was leaving, merle snuck out with another, unfinished automaton named milo padden (mepad) - who, apparently, was supposed to be merle's replacement.

merle was upset by his father's dismissal, and, out of spite, worked hard to learn his father's craft - to invent, even better than he did. part of this was possible on account of a flaw in merle's code: he knew he was an invention, an automaton, and so had the mind to look at his own programming to see how someone like him could be made. his skill in invention increased rapidly, resulting in the completion of milo's construction, and merle soon amassed his own massive wealth. merle and milo both knew each other to be automata, but that was a secret between them, one merle made him swear to never tell - and merle felt alienated from the rest of society, only truly himself around milo. he could never be truly happy, he thought, living in a world of humans...

so merle used his money to fund an expedition to find a hidden, uninhabited island to claim (which his soul seemed to draw him to), build houses and infrastructure on it, and create an entire population of automata to live in that island town and keep him company. he wanted to be their equals, for it to never come up that he'd made them, so he made sure to program them to think they were real people with real lives before and outside this town - he also made milo promise to never tell them their true origin. merle specially coded his townspeople to have exaggerated, cartoonish personalities, such that there'd be entertaining tomfoolery and mischief at all times. also, on account of being automata needing power to function, and lacking any sort of battery, the townspeople could not leave the island - they didn't know it, but it was the shimmering shell within merle which brought them life. lacking individual power sources, they all would "die" if they left merle's presence; but why would they want to? it hadn't been merle's intention to trap them all there, but he found it very convenient: his friends would never leave him now! they could play and fool about forever, in an eternal, naïve paradise...

...but, in recent times, not everything has been so rosy. while the bickering and bantering between the townsfolk had been mild at first, it soon turned into bitter fighting, to the point where people have wanted to move out - only to find they couldn't, for they would collapse on the shore right outside town. tragedy struck when one townsperson, bella (bow), got swept away into the ocean after powering down on the beach, never to be seen again... worth noting is that, even if the fighting has become more severe, merle finds it entertaining all the same.

on top of this, someone named tom lesley (toilet) from outside had somehow found the island and decided to move into town - with nowhere to live (there were only enough houses built for merle, milo, and the townspeople merle made), he decided to move in with merle himself. merle acquiesced at first, but soon became frustrated with tom, whom he found incredibly annoying. this opened the door for merle to be mean to him, and then he started to be mean to the other townsfolk, including his best friend milo. from there the town became a locked box full of people who despised each other, and things descended into chaos.

(little did merle know, tom is another automaton made by his father: an automaton designed to 1. spy on merle and 2. piss merle off, such that all of this fighting would happen. unlike merle, tom's source of energy is a simple yet powerful battery: long-lasting, but ultimately finite, unlike the shimmering shell.)

one of the townsfolk, tess, has developed a knack for inventing, not knowing merle's own proclivity for it - and she used this skill to create her own automaton. with the help of her friend finn, she created a replica of bella, powered by solar energy. but this new bella, much like the rest of the automata, began to expand outside the confines of her programmed personality - partly because, like merle, she wasn't specifically programmed to think she was real. one of the first things that made her discover the discrepancy between herself and everyone else was the fact that, despite everyone fearing the beach and telling new bella not to go (as this was how old bella died, and nobody knew the power source was to blame), she was totally fine. new bella took on a new name, blythe (bot), and soon started investigating the town's curiosities (listed in no particular order):

1) why can none of the townsfolk leave the town's boundaries except for blythe?

2) why is everyone fighting so much, and why is merle the only townsperson to not be bothered by it?

3) why don't the townspeople's life stories (life before the island, how they got to the island) add up or make sense, except for merle's?

4) why are there so few inhabitants on the island?

5) why does the librarian, cassidy (cabby), not believe the town history display in town hall?

6) where did the ancient ruins right outside of town come from?

7) why is casey sue (suitcase) so keen out of everyone to leave, and what does she mean when she claims that she isn't real?

8) where did tom come from? how did he find the island, and why?

9) how do the townsfolk keep coming back from what would otherwise fatal injuries?

10) what are merle and milo hiding?

but when blythe found no answers to their questions, they built a boat and set out for land. there, blythe heard of professor layton... and sought him out for assistance.

and that's where the adventure would truly begin! below is just some fun dialogue i wrote for when blythe is first talking to layton...

layton: "now, blythe, i do apologize for asking such a blunt question... but i cannot tell if you are a gentleman or a lady by simple observation, and i do not wish to offend you by assuming you are either. would you kindly tell me how i should refer to you?"

blythe: "no worries, professor! i am neither gentleman nor lady, in fact. i appreciate your asking; not many people do."

layton: "of course. thank you, blythe."

luke: "but professor, how could blythe be neither a boy nor a girl? i've never heard of such a thing before in my life!"

layton: "the world is full of interesting things, my boy. it does us no good too reject something, or someone, on account of it being foreign to us. and i'm sure our friend blythe would appreciate if you did not talk about them in the third person."

luke: "them... oh, my apologies, blythe! i did not mean to be rude! i do find it cool that you're neither. i'm glad to know that's possible."

blythe: "you learn something new every day!"