#if we got an ema skye led game IF WE GOT AN EMA SKYE LED GAME...

[riseninsaturn]

started thinking about lana skye i'm going to die

[the-judicial-assistants-notebook]

sits up in bed. so lana and ema definitely thought they were responsible for edgeworth "choosing death", right?

(the rest of this post was supposed to go in the tags, because it's not very well organised or written, but it got too long so. here are the slightly edited tags for your reading pleasure (or otherwise)):

i was going to make this solely about ema because she's the obvious one with her open adoration of edgeworth, but the thing about rfta is that it goes to great lengths to emphasise the connection between lana and edgeworth as well.

the sl-9 incident showed that lana grows attached to people deeply, hence angel starr's comment on how, when neil marshall died, 'she (lana) felt like her own brother had died.' with edgeworth, i think it was similar but worse. because he's not just a coworker or subordinate who's dear to her. he saved her life. and it cost him his own.

at the beginning of the case, edgeworth says he was mistaken for thinking that lana was always looking out for him post sl-9 (a statement interesting on its own because that's when everyone else says she grew distant), and, later on, he brings ema fingerprinting powder because lana asked him to. then, of course, there's the 'lady luck' comment he makes.

similarly, on lana's side, you obviously have the end of the trial when she says he did well, but there's also that additional moment post-trial where she's the only one to notice — in a group comprising her, ema, phoenix and gumshoe — that he's 'hiding', listening to their conversation. point is, there's enough to suggest that she might have been the nearest thing edgeworth had to a mia; his 'chief prosecutor' to phoenix's plain 'chief'. they're as close as two people can be in a relationship where one of them is constantly lying and the other is von karma's star pupil.

rfta is pretty straightforwardly depicted as the case which solidified edgeworth's resolve to do what he did; i don't think i have to prove that. rumours about him have reached new heights, his car and knife were involved in goodman's murder, he makes an unprecedented mistake in court by failing to connect the evidence room and carpark incidents, thus forcing the chief of police to enter the trial to do so himself, and he's publicly revealed to have relied on falsified evidence to secure a conviction in the sl-9 case, all of which only happened because of lana. jake marshall even claims that from the beginning — that if you trace edgeworth's rumours back to their source, you end up meeting one person: lana skye.

and it gets worse because at the end of rfta, she thinks he's fine!! she literally says, 'i was afraid the pressure would break you, but you rose above it,' and reminds him he's nothing like gant because he's not alone. she leaves the case thinking he will be okay. and then, what, like a week passes, and she finds out that he wasn't, and that he's gone, and it's her fault. even after she was freed from gant's control, even after she had finally stopped lying, she couldn't prevent herself from claiming another life. so much for 'lady luck', i suppose.

and the game reiterates this multiple times. gumshoe states at the start that edgeworth's ties to those higher up in the department have made him the subject of constant rumours, and phoenix says (in front of ema) that he shouldn't be held responsible for the forged evidence because that was all lana's doing, which then leads to edgeworth commenting (again in front of ema) that he feels as though 'something inside him has died.' it all goes back to lana. we can argue and say that it was technically gant's doing that caused all of this, but lana still took actions that led to it. even her complicated friendship with edgeworth isn't spared; it's that closeness between them that exacerbated those rumours. how could she not feel responsible in some way?

and with ema, it's rather obvious, isn't it? if she hadn't gone poking her nose into things, none of this would have happened or come to light. and, of course, she'd never choose anyone over her sister, not for anything in the world — it's simply not a question, but that's the problem, isn't it? it's not a question. it's not some hypothetical moral dilemma. it just is. she may not have killed neil marshall, but she still has one king of prosecutor's blood on her hands. and now she has to live with that. she just. has. to live with it. no matter if he chose otherwise.

moving on from that a little, i think it's actually wild how much of ema's journey to becoming a forensics investigator is paved with bad memories. neil marshall's death and her subsequent inability to testify are what drives her to begin pursuing it, her first proper investigation results in her idol's "death" and when she finally graduates, the person who saved her sister has been disbarred, and she can't even help because she isn't allowed to. all that pain and constant pursuit of her goals, and she's still the same ema skye, still that girl shrouded in darkness, always one step behind the truth, one step a little too late. no wonder she was angry in aa:aj. i would be furious.

[mewtonian-physics]

It all makes sense now.

Damon Gant killed Neil Marshall and framed Ema Skye for it. (I don’t have proof of this yet and I don’t know why he did it. But considering how this game has gone so far, I don’t think she really did it; and he’s the only option for who did the framing.) Lana Skye, terrified her little sister would face punishment, tried to cover up the crime by moving Marshall’s body and claiming Joe Darke was the one who killed him. She then fabricated evidence in order to ‘prove’ it.

Gant then took the two decisive pieces of evidence against Ema and hid them in his safe, using them to keep Lana in check for two years under the threat that, if she acted out, he’d reveal the ‘truth’. Gant was always corrupt; that comment about his ‘magnetism’ for ‘incredible evidence’ hints at it. Maybe he was just an overzealous cop determined to get the ‘bad guys’ by any means necessary. Maybe something darker. I’m not sure yet. I’m pretty sure that the reason Neil was killed was because he got too close to the truth on that.

Bruce Goodman knew something was off with the SL-9 Incident, but I don’t think he knew just what. He was going to look into it again before the evidence transferal, but Gant couldn’t risk him uncovering the truth. So, he did the same thing to Goodman that he did to Neil, and ordered Lana to cover it up for him.

Lana called Jake Marshall, who then dressed up as Goodman using the ID card he’d stolen from him that morning and went to look at the evidence one more time. But that evidence had already been removed--I’m pretty sure by Gant. That just made him absolutely certain that something was up. Mike Meekins snuck up on him, and they got into a brief fight, before Marshall escaped, hiding his now-bloody disguise in his own evidence locker.

Angel Starr witnessed Lana attempting to hide the evidence of the crime, which involved her removing and hiding the actual murder weapon and stabbing the body with the knife from Edgeworth’s trunk. Goodman was already dead, so Lana did not commit murder, though Starr thought she did. Gant’s blackmailing led to her attempting to take the fall for the entire crime.

And thus, we set the scene for our intrepid protagonist.

Now, did I make any mistakes... Time to finish this trial and find out.

[onceuponymous]

LanaMia Wicked AU Act 1

Llana Skye has been on track to go to Shiz her whole life, taking all the preparatory programs.  Her rich family helped, but she is a genuinely hard worker.  Meanwhile, Mia Fey is only at the school because her aunt Morgan, who is the headmistress, wanted her there to take care of her cousin Dahlia.  Morgan has taken care of Mia since her own mother disappeared (she never knew her father beyond a small green bottle).  Mia wants to learn how to use her gift for magic, but is already sick of being stared at so much for her green skin.  She has high hopes for meeting the Wizard.

As you may have gathered, Dahlia is Nessarose.  She genuinely has some of Iris’s personality traits — Mia has to want to protect her, after all.  Not sure if she’s in a wheelchair or has some other disability, or whether her condition can be blamed on Mia’s verdigris (the way Nessa’s mother was made to eat milkflowers when pregnant).  Maybe rather than her legs, she faints very easily, and the wheelchair is to prevent overexertion.

Madame Morgan assigns Mia to Llana’s room, making a comment about how maybe Llana’s studiousness can set an example.  So Llana’s first impression of Mia is someone who only got into the school by family connections, who’s rude (okay, Mia may be a little snappy about her skin.  And may have grabbed a student or two by the lapels), and who makes some strange feeling rise up in her guts.  It must be loathing.

Meanwhile, Mia sees Llana surrounded by friends like Jake, Neil, Bruce, and Angel, and comes to the conclusion that she’s faking all her friendliness and concern, and that’s how she has this cadre always agreeing with her and praising her.  She’s also pretty sure that Llana’s led a charmed life that led her to Shiz.  And her face feels flushed whenever she looks at her — this feeling has got to have a name!

(Yeah, they’re gay for each other)

Dr. Grossberg talks about, like the scent of fresh lemon, the days of his youth a lot, when a Goat like him would not be the only talking animal on campus.  Mia makes a good impression on him, and they start talking to each other a lot about Ozian politics and law.  He always pronounces Llana’s name as Lana. Before I start talking about Phoenix, I just want to point out @thisllendpoorly’s observation that Fiyero Tiggular sounds a lot like Furio Tigre.  What Could It Mean.  Also two-line wonder Avaric is Larry Butz.

So Phoenix is a new student who’s not expecting to last long at this school.  He’s brainless, after all, everyone tells him he only gets by on bluffs and luck.  So why not embrace that about himself!  Also he’s a prince I guess?

And now we start shuffling around the love triangles.  Diego is really into Mia, always calling her kitten.  Llana’s noticed that Mia does not really reciprocate, so even if they have their differences she’s gonna be on this girl’s side.  So she’s been subtly intercepting Diego whenever he tries to get closer than Mia is comfortable with.  When he’s about to ask Mia to the ball, Llana gets him to agree to taking Dahlia out for a fun night before he even gets near the other Fey.  (If they’re both students, ages are probably changed so he’s not eight years older than Dahlia.  Still, there’s never even a pretense of a romantic relationship between them, bc that would creep me out.)  Dahlia enjoys having someone around who’s so concerned with making her happy, and also likes seeing what she can do and how he’ll react.

Phoenix immediately gets along with both Llana and Mia, and learns about their rivalry.  He invites Llana to the Ozdust Ballroom, then invites Mia.  However, when the two get to the ballroom, they find themselves dancing with each other!  And they start realizing that maybe their assumptions about each other were wrong, and they could be friends after all.  (And wow, under these lights Mia’s eyes are really pretty, and Llana is so graceful of a dancer…)

(Phoenix: “All according to keikaku”)

So Llana and Mia get along now, though they still haven’t admitted their feelings.  And Llana decides to teach Mia how to be popular (which does involve some complying with trends and putting on an act, but Mia learns that Llana really does care about her friends, and she really is pretty dang smart.  She just is more concerned about image than Mia is.)

Dr. Grossberg is forbidden to teach.  His replacement is *spins wheel* Robert Hammond?  *continues spinning wheel* Redd White?  Manfred von Karma?  Blaise Debeste?  … You know what, lets just call the new professor “Bob”.

Bob brings in a Lion cub in a cage and talks about how he can prevent her from ever learning how to speak.  Mia casts a spell in agitation that incapacitates most of the people in the room, Phoenix breaks the cage door and runs off with the cub, and Llana can’t believe she’s going along with them but… but this is wrong.  Llana surprises herself by saying she’ll take care of the cub.  The little lion currently only knows how to say her name: Ema. 

Somehow Llana becomes convinced that Mia and Phoenix love each other.  (They do not.  They are very good friends.)  She also decides to go by “Lana” in honor of Grossberg (and so that the author doesn’t have to keep going back and adding an extra L to her name).

Madame Morgan arranges for Mia to go to Oz and talk to the Wizard after her agitation over Grossberg.  (No one knows about Ema.)  Mia asks Lana to come with her because “she knows how to talk to people” (because she feels better about everything when Lana is near).  Meanwhile, Diego’s getting agitated at having to spend so much time with Dahlia, who insists that they are “the best of friends!”  He says that he can’t do this anymore and storms off.

Lana and Mia have a gay time in the Emerald City.  Then it’s time to meet the Great and Powerful Wizard of Oz…

… Gant.

Yeah, this is gonna end well.

Gant is delighted to meet Mia and Lana!  He brings out a Monkey and gives Mia the Grimmerie, telling her to cast a levitation spell as a show of her powers.  Mia complies, but is horrified when the Monkey starts screaming in pain.  And then Press Secretary Morgan tells her that spells are irreversible, other caged Monkeys begin growing wings, and Gant goes on about how these spies, I mean scouts, can report subversive animal activities…

Mia runs off.  Lana chases her, and Gant calls for guards to go after them both. Lana says that Mia shouldn’t have run off, that yes what she was just made to do was horrible, but Gant has power and is offering them a chance to work with him!  They can talk to him, influence him, direct that power where it can do some good!  Mia is being impulsive to run off instead of trying to work with what they’ve got.

Mia is done playing by the rules of someone else’s game, however.  She asks Lana to come with her, to follow their dreams, just the two of them.

… Lana hopes she’s happy.

The guards burst through the door, and Mia puts on a show.  She’s the Wicked Witch, she’s going to take down the Wizard, Lana definitely tried to stop her but failed!  No one’s going to bring her down!

END ACT ONE