#the miraculous turnabout

[cringefail-clown]

turnabout kids and their sprites! ive had an ask laying around in my inbox about them for far too long lmfao, so ive finally decided to draw em out

jane: mime porcelain doll + poppop

dirk: seagull + hal

roxy: wizard figurine + frigglish

jake: gcat + his dreamself

[inkedkoi]

(i guess i didn’t post it here huh)

And here, my tumblr fellows, is 

“season one” of Miraculous Turnabout 

(that I made around two years ago but okay)

below, there’s the AO3 info if you need it!

even though i didn’t know what i was doing, i hope you enjoy it B)

my inbox is open so ask me whatever you want to know!

anyway, i have to go back to writing season 2

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Chapters (or as I say “Episodes”): 16/16 (Complete)

Words: ~180,000 (179,585)

Rating: Teens and Up

Category: M/M, F/M, F/F

Fandoms: Ace Attorney, Miraculous Ladybug

Archive Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, (Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death near the end of the whole fic)

Relationships: narumitsu, franmaya, plagg x tikki, gumbyrde

Characters: Phoenix Wright, Miles Edgeworth, Maya Fey, Franziska von Karma, Dick Gumshoe, Mia Fey, Larry Butz, Gregory Edgeworth, Manfred von Karma, Pearl Fey cameos

Additional Tags:

College AU, miles has a mom in this AU, Quote: Just a friend (Miraculous Ladybug) ( yes i’m evil >:D ), these boys are going to be so blind, love square, finally some good fuckin lore, Blood and Injury, Character Death, Minor Character Death, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Temporary Character Death, Near Death Experiences, maybe cry, Swearing, Childhood Trauma, a bit of angst, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Trauma, trying to keep a monthly upload, you can tell that I was a marichat shipper, both missile and pess exist, Nick in skirt supremacy, and Nick would pull it off, Crossdressing, LGBTQ OCs, everyone in Team Miracle is queer, a lot of dark themes and topics mentioned, can we get therapy for these characters?, mostly crack fic but okay

Description: For every personal wish, there is a price to pay.

Living in the modern society of Kurain City, Phoenix Wright and Miles Edgeworth wouldn’t expect magic to exist. But when a dark mastermind came back from the shadows, they would have to work together with the powerful Miraculous jewels and become Beetle Bug and Kuro Neko to bring in a turnabout, even if their real identities would be classified.

As simple as their promise to protect the city is, the puzzling past that awaits them is not.

[ End of AO3 info :) ]

[marinettesaltprompts]

True Holder Turnabout

I'm imagining a new variation of the "True Holder" scenario. Sure, as *always* Adrien isn't Plagg's "True Holder" and gets to suffer realizing he was just a patsy this whole time. But this time, *Marinette* gets to get some of the same medicine.

Because *she's* Plagg's True Holder. *Not Tikki's*.

*

In hindsight it should have been obvious. Her plans were almost always massively destructive, often needlessly so. And she handled Plagg's power almost as well as Chat Noir did despite having it for mere minutes to his months.

But she’d *always* struggled with her Lucky Charm. From the beginning she'd *never* been able to create what she wanted, but just got seemingly random objects that she had to desperately guess how to make do with. Sure, her problem solving skills were *creative*, but her actual use of the power never really improved- even after Fu trained her as a holder.

Meanwhile *everyone else* who handled Tikki's power or a copy of it did either as well as her, or usually *far better*. All those Akumas who copied her power- they could summon whatever they wanted on command. *Even Chat Noir* had gotten exactly what he wanted on his first try, something she'd not been able to do... *ever*.

The only thing she’d been able to do that they couldn’t was make Magical Charms, and Shadowmoth had broken through those within a *month*.

But while Marinette comes to terms with her new reality, Chat Noir has his own harsh truths to face. Alas for Chat Noir, his relationships with Ladybug and Plagg were built on lies and he no one's True Holder- or least he’s not willing to stay and find out if he is. The revelations of how he's been manipulated apparently so utterly disillusioned him that he doesn't even bother showing up in person to give up the ring. And with their friendship having long since been overshadowed by Ladybug’s authority, there’s nothing stopping him from vanishing from her life without a word- quite certain that she wouldn’t actually care.

So Marinette has to accept the abrupt final loss of her one-time partner even as she comes to terms with Tikki not really having been her Kwami. At the same time…

She has to accept working under a new Ladybug. A new girl from across the sea, found and trained by The Order to truly be a great Ladybug.

And it truly is "working under". Because Marinette may have gotten away with commanding her team before, but as the Black Cat? Well she has to follow whatever plan the new Ladybug comes up with in the battlefield and with Su-han now actually exerting his authority as the Celestial Guardian she's no longer really the boss of the Box behind the scenes either.

It's a reset of sorts. Back to the pre-Miracle Queen status quo, even if Marinett keeps the box in her room now.

Except now *she's* the put upon Black Cat.

At first, it's kind of liberating. She doesn't have to plan things out anymore, she just follows orders and has a bit of fun with her Miraculous. But what shine there is wears off fast.

The New Ladybug is far, far more effective with Tikki's powers and her tactics than Marinette ever was, and it hurts to see how easily Paris moves on from her old persona. To be so easily replaced and outclassed by some new girl who actually got to be trained by The Order instead of Fu, who was just an initiate. Her charms are exactly what she wants, her plans are simple, creative and rarely risk collateral damage.

*Her* Magical Charms aren’t broken by Shadowmoth, so the Villain can’t reuse victims. Instead he has to spin the wheel with new ones whose powers were far from consistently dangerous, and less potent than a trained and refined powerhouse like Stormy Weather or even Mr Pigeon with his steadily increasing skill with his abilities.

Alya isn’t Rena anymore, but that’s nothing exceptional for the old team. Marinette friends and temp-heroes were unceremoniously benched when the New Ladybug took contro and any chance that they’d be allowed a Miraculous again went up in smoke the second The New Ladybug learnt that most of their identities were known to Shadowmoth.

Instead, the New Ladybug has her own team. One that seems to be made up of adults or teenagers who Marinette doesn’t know, because why share that information?

It's hard having to constantly obey plans she isn't privy to the full details of, to have to sacrifice her body and mind whenever the New Ladybug is in danger.

(Marinette never realized how hard it was to lose her mind. To *die* and act like its nothing. Chat Noir had never complained, but it was anything but easy.)

Information is on a strictly need to know basis, and Lady Noire doesn’t *need* to know, so it’s not offered. The New Ladybug also has firm professional boundaries, and really- she doesn't seem to exactly hold her predecessor in high esteem.

There's plans to find Shadowmoth happening behind the scenes, Marinette's sure of it. The New Ladybug and Su-Han appear now and then to take or return a Miraculous from the box- but they don't tell her anything. And Marinette learns not to ask when The New Ladybug bluntly asks her why *she* never tried to find Shadowmoth with The Miraculous herself.

And when she brings up the fact that *she's* the Guardian of the Mother Box as a point of contention? Because the Miraculous and Kwamis that are being taken and lent out are *her* responsibility;

The New Ladybug looks her in eye and demands to know *how* Marinette gained that *responsibility* of the Mother Box. Because the story she knows is one about a girl who *failed upwards* after leading her worst enemy to her master.

Marinette has to learn how to live as The Black Cat. To be "another cheese on the board", to be left out, to be used and only included at The Ladybug's leisure.

She has to learn to accept being replaced as Tikki's holder by a "better girl" who was "always meant to be The Ladybug".

She has to accept that this is her life now. And as she has to accept that her bond with Tikki was never what she thought it was, as she gets used as a pawn on the board again and again, left out of plans and vital information that effects her and *dammit she deserves to know*;

She comes to understand why Chat Noir (whatever his real name is) didn't want to stay on as a holder.

Even if it meant losing access to the Miraculous forever.

[thecourtscorkboard]

Turnabout Big Top (2-3)

Even when looking for a break from all the drama, it comes out of nowhere to find us: a magic circus is interrupted by the murder of its own ringmaster, and Phoenix Wright is called to defend its star magician!

Hope y'all didn't miss me too much! Welcome to 2-3, perhaps the poster-child for hated AA cases. Many people call it the worst case in the entire franchise, and this isn't without reason, although we'll get to that once we go through this case's material and arrive at our own conclusion.

At the very least, 2-3 has a very interesting premise: the star magician of a traveling circus has been arrested for the murder of its ringmaster, and we're called to defend him! Let's see if 2-3 is actually as bad as everyone remembers or if it really does get zero stars out of five!

THE CORE CAST:

Phoenix Wright: Coming hot off the heels of losing his memory, Phoenix travels with Maya and Pearl to the Berry Big Circus: only to get wrapped up in another murder!

Maya Fey: Maya returns as our main assistant, taking Pearl's role from the last case. Turns out she's quite a fan of the circus!

Franziska von Karma: Franziska returns as the prosecution, still reeling from her defeat at our hands a few months back and unambiguously pissed about it.

THE MAIN CAST:

Dick Gumshoe: Gumshoe finally gets a chance to show up for actual detective work in 2-3, returning as a major player in this case!

Max Galactica: The star of the Berry Big Circus: a magician that is renowned worldwide for his cordless flying act.

Regina Berry: The daughter of the ringmaster and the "darling child" of the circus, if you will: naïve to a fault and sheltered beyond belief.

Benjamin Woodman: A master ventriloquist and a member of the Berry Big Circus. Notoriously shy, relying on his puppet "Trilo Quist" to do the talking for him.

Moe: A clown at the Berry Big Circus and a mentor figure for many other performers. Loves bad jokes, a good guffaw, and the people around him.

Ken "Acro" Dingling: An acrobat and a long-time member of the Berry Big Circus who was sent into retirement after an unfortunate accident caused him to be paralyzed from the waist down.

THE SECONDARY CAST:

Sean "Bat" Dingling: A former acrobat and the brother of Acro who was unfortunately sent into a coma six months ago.

Russell Berry: The ringleader of the Berry Big Circus. A larger-than-life figure who has lead the circus through thick and thin.

Pearl Fey: Pearl, unfortunately, only has a passing role in this case: but she's here regardless!

A BRIEF RECAP

We cut to a circus: a Berry Big one, as a matter of fact. The announcer says that we are about to witness a man who has mastered the power of flight. Sure enough, he does just that, flying through the sky! This is the one, the only: Maximillion Galactica, magician extraordinare!

Whatever your opinion on 2-3, you have to admit that this intro is fire. It's my second-favorite in the entire game after 2-2.

Investigation, Day One

After the circus closes, Pearl is overjoyed. She's never seen so many people performing so many miraculous things! Maya agrees: she thought it was awesome. Maya and Pearl have to go back home, and Pearl teases Maya about spending New Years' with Phoenix before Maya pulls her away, embarrassed.

The next day (which is December 28: sound familiar?), we're cleaning up a horrible mess at our office (that Maya promised she'd help clean up) when we get a call. It's Maya, and she's inconsolable: Max Galactica has been arrested for murder! Maya says that she'll see us at the detention center in two hours, and we've really got nothing else to do, so... off to the detention center we go!

Ziggy Stardust? That you?

Meet Maximillion Galactica, who Maya is absolutely enamored with. He seems to be a fan of her as well, but when it comes to us he couldn't give a rat's ass. We get to talking with him, and he tells us that he's been on the recipient's end of a rather prestigious award: he's the victor of the Magician's Grand Prix, earning a sizable bust and a nice little trophy. Anyways, he tells us what happened: Russell Berry, ringleader of the Berry Big Circus, was murdered. Apparently, Max was the last one to see Russell alive, meeting with him in his room: worse than that, he was hit over the head! His meeting was apparently about his salary: try pressing him any more, though, and we get psyche-locks!

Max is in denial that he's been arrested. We eventually get him to realize the truth, though, and he breaks character: it turns out that his real name is Billy Bob Johns, and like yours truly he's from the Heartland of the Heartland, a true southnor! There's something funny with how quickly Maya's being enamored with him vanishes after he breaks down into tears. We agree to help him out and, after a brief discussion in the Wright & Co. Law Offices, head back to the Berry Big Circus.

How fast the act crumbles...

Going into the circus itself, the first place we decide to go is a nearby lodging house. This must be where the performers stay while they're on tour! Gumshoe interrupts us: he's surprised to see us here and apparently every single time he's been to the circus he's been there on work. Apparently, Franziska's working the case again: and she is pissed. Maya asks where Edgeworth's been—Gumshoe is reluctant to answer, asking if Maya "hadn't heard" what happened to him. Apparently, Phoenix hasn't told her! Gumshoe ominously says that he's "not around" anymore. A shocked Maya asks us what he's talking about, but Phoenix shuts her questioning down: telling her to never even say his name again.

Getting back to the case itself, it looks like the ringleader of the circus itself was murdered. Right outside the lodging house, no less! We ask Gumshoe what happened to the ringleader and apparently he was smacked on the head. His body was discovered quickly, but apparently Detective Gumshoe says that there's one thing that doesn't quite fit.

This "one thing" that doesn't quite fit? Footprints. What about them? That's the thing: there are none! The only footprints at the scene of the crime were the victim's! That's a conundrum, alright. Where'd the killer come from, where did he go? Gumshoe says that the only way a killer could've done this is if they could fly and—oh my fucking god. This is what they're basing their case off of? Well, there's also the fact that Max's hat was found at the scene, so...

Says the dude named after a bird.

We get the crime scene photo from Gumshoe and go out into the circus stage itself. There's a growling noise and there's a t-t-t-t-t-t-t-tiger! He's growling and roaring at us but somebody manages to step in while Maya is panicking about our well-being: the ringleader's daughter, Regina Berry!

This Sailor Moon-ass girl is apparently oblivious to how dangerous tigers really are. We reluctantly agree with her assessment that we're lucky to 'play' with a tiger, and she quickly moves on to asking if she can try on Maya's clothes. She gives us a few details about what happened last night: she was the only one that stayed around the circus tent, playing with Regent, the tiger. Maya is impressed at her animal taming skills, but Regina brushes it off. Ever since Léon—the circus's former lion—died, Regent's been her best friend: there's nothing scary, or even particularly impressive, about it to her. Apparently, her own father killed Léon, but she isn't sure why.

We talk about Max a bit and Regina tells Maya something: apparently Max professed his love to her the other day along with somebody else! ...Ah. How old is he, again...? Putting that thought out of our minds (MUSTARD ON THE BEAT HO), we learn that the other person who had confessed their love to her was somebody named "Trilo", a tenor in the opera. After their practice session last night, her father went into his room in a hurry: that's our cue to check out the Ringmaster's office!

One of my favorite set-pieces in the entire game!

While we're checking out the room, Maya sneakily steals a poster of Max Galactica. Sneaky, sneaky! There's a set of papers on the table and we can't help but take a look at them: apparently this is Max's salary and oh my goodness, does he make a lot of money! Maybe Phoenix should become a magician. Apparently, he got an absolutely massive raise just a week ago: so why would he want to kill the person who gave him said raise? That's our first piece of ammunition going into trial!

We head back to the circus entrance and come face-to-face with Benjamin Woodman, a ventriloquist for the circus! He's incredibly nervous, looking over his shoulder and with a near-constant stutter. Left shoulder, right shoulder, left shoulder, look, huh?

...Did Maya just make a dick joke?

We try to get him to tell us a bit more. He says that Max isn't very nice and that his head hurts, but anything more than that gives us a big, fat nothing out of him. Welp, guess there's nowhere else to go than Moe's tent!

And boy, what a character he is. Constantly laughing at his own jokes, which Maya does not hesitate to also laugh at, wearing an outfit defined by smile after smile... this guy is a circus act, alright. Moe tells us that the circus has come on hard times: it can't compete with movies, TV, video games, and bowling. Apparently, Russell was a very kind man: when the circus didn't make enough money, he'd pay from his own pocket. When we get to talking about the murder, Moe tells us that he was an eyewitness!

After we're forced to make an awful joke, Moe tells us what he saw. He was about to go to bed when he heard a loud "thump": and when he jumped out of bed to take a look, he saw Max. That's all? It doesn't feel very decisive...

Har! Har! Har! Har! Har! Har! Har! Har!

Before we leave, Moe gives us the bright idea of checking out the cafeteria. Apparently, Max had hit Ben over the head! We go to check it out and sure enough it looks like there's been a full-on food fight: when we pick up a broken bottle, Phoenix puts two and two together. Moe told us there's "Gotti be something interesting here", and sure enough the mobster loved his wine.

I think we've got enough to put everything together, though. Going back to the Detention Center and meeting with Max, it's time for us to break his psyche-locks! Max says that he and Russell were discussing his salary, but that isn't possible. After all, he got a raise a week ago! Max tells us that Russell did call him to his room, but won't tell us why. Well, we've got an idea: he was being reprimanded for hitting Ben with the bottle! Max's psyche-locks are broken and we finally get a more detailed account of what happened last night from him.

Yesterday morning, Max and Ben were having a fight: apparently, they were both competing for the heart of Regina and Ben had confessed to her. In a fit of rage, Max assaulted Ben with a bottle and was called to Russell's office: Max demanded that he be allowed to marry Regina and, surprisingly, Russell accepted. To solidify this deal, however, Max decided to shut up Ben by hiding Trilo. Apparently, Ben can barely talk without his puppet!

I have to hand it to Ziggy here: that's actually pretty smart.

After heading to Russell's office and finding Trilo, we rush over to give it back to Ben, who is in the circus cafeteria. Through Trilo, Ben decides to insult and degrade us Jeff Dunham-style before giving us some information. "Trilo" apparently hates Russell: Ben isn't being paid very much, doesn't like Moe, and has his hand in Trilo's pants. Apparently, Ben's trying to marry Regina.

...Hooh boy.

Alright, let's just ignore that. Apparently, Ben's also an eyewitness to Russell's murder and is adamant that it was Max! Greeeeeeeat. Before we can get any more information out of him, Ben runs off. He's going to be a witness in court tomorrow... much to our dismay. When we leave the cafeteria, a monkey comes out of nowhere and swipes our badge! Regina pops up and tells us to go over to Moe's: apparently he's friends with Money the monkey. Regina has nothing of interest to say, so we head over to Moe's tent.

Heading back over there, Moe gives us a bit more information about her: apparently, Regina has been born and raised in the circus and doesn't know much about life outside of it. Moe's friendly and kooky demeanor quickly shifts to a more serious one when talking about her—it seems that he takes his role as "Uncle Moe" quite seriously. When it comes to Money, Moe is ready to lead us to his owner: an acrobat named, rather fittingly, Acro. He's not in, but Moe lets us take a look around his room.

In a pile of junk, probably collected by Money, we find our badge: and also a ring! "From T to R"... hm. Teddy to Roosevelt, perhaps? In any case, with a ring in our pocket and a badge on our lapel, our first day of investigation comes to an end!

Trial, Day Two

Before going into trial, Max's nerves are frayed. Although we can't give him a glass of milk to calm down, we do manage to get him to stop panicking before heading in.

In the words of her not-so-illustrious father, "get on with it, man!"

After the court agrees to call Max by his stage name, Franziska starts going off on Phoenix. Still absolutely incensed by the 2-2 trial, she declares it was a sham and that her perfect record will, despite that, stand. Sore loser much?

Regardless, she calls Gumshoe to the stand. She's surprisingly polite with him, and Gumshoe's testimony sheds a lot of much-needed light on the case. The victim was beaten to death at 10:15 PM and under his body was a wooden trunk! We press for a bit more information and it turns out inside the trunk was a bottle of pepper and... that's it. Huh. Okay, well, it's accepted as evidence anyways!

We ask Gumshoe about the night of the murder a bit more. It was snowing pretty hard, but there's not much else that we can gleam from him. He's dismissed and Ben is called up to the stage. Here we go: time for our first real testimony!

Ben testifies, through Trilo, that he saw Max heading towards the scene of the murder while standing outside of the lodging house. While His Honor brings up the idea that Moe could be the murderer, as Ben left him before seeing Max, there's the issue of Max's silk hat left at the crime scene: a piece of very incriminating evidence. Nevertheless, it's time for us to start cross-examining Ben! The first contradiction is pretty clear: isn't it weird that Ben only saw Max? After all, Russell's body was there! We try to press this claim but there's no definitive proof that Russell wasn't waiting there already. Well, what about him waiting outside of the lodging house? He was waiting for Regina: and we're able to put two-and-two together! Even if Ben saw somebody walk by him, he wouldn't care if they weren't Regina!

Please. Don't look at me like that.

Ben testifies again: he was waiting to propose to Regina and even had a gift ready! Drilling Ben a bit more, we get him to admit that this gift of his was an engagement ring. He said that he had it in Trilo's pocket, but this can't be true: after all, this had to have been the ring we found in Acro's room! "From T to R": "From Trilo to Regina"!

Ben tells us that the ring was stolen around the time Max walked by and that he chased after Money: and this proves a massive discrepancy! He was chasing after Money, which means there's no way he can truthfully say that he was watching the plaza all night! His Honor sustains our argument and asks Ben to testify one more time.

This is his final slip-up! Ben says that he cordially said "good evening" to Max, but this is incredibly unlikely. After all, Max assaulted him, remember? What does this mean? There's one conclusion that is seeming increasingly likely: Ben is trying to frame Max by placing him at the scene of the crime! He probably did see somebody, though. Who was it? The defendant! Even though he saw the defendant's "three symbols"—the silk hat, cape, and white roses—anybody could pull that off!

I would pay a large amount of money to see this.

Although we've made the point that Ben is an unreliable witness, apparently Franziska's next witness is not! She's getting ready to call Moe to the stand, and trial is adjourned for a brief recess.

In the Defendant's Lobby, Max tells us that he took off his stage costume while meeting Russell. It's now looking likelier and likelier that Russell did, indeed, dress up as Max! But why? Furthermore, where did Max's cloak go?

The recess is quickly over and court is back in session: Franziska calls Lawrence "Moe" Curls to the stand!

...Okay, brief break. Can I talk about how much I genuinely love Moe's name? This should probably be for the greater review but I just wanted to make a quick aside here. Larry, Moe, and Curly were the Three Stooges, and Moe's name finishes the name of the sisters from 2-2: Ini and Mimi Miney, and Moe—eeny, meeny, miney, mo! This is a really cute detail and I think it's one of the best names in the series.

Anyways! Moe tries to sing us the theme song to Fresh Prince with a corny twist and tries to lament about his life's story before giving us an actual testimony. Moe says that he was about to go to bed due to being exhausted from practice, but before he was fully asleep he glanced out his window and saw Max and Russell arguing: and Max hit Russell over the head!

Drilling Moe for information, we get to asking why he looked out of his window. Apparently, he heard a "thump" sound: the sound of somebody being hit very hard. There's our contradiction! If Moe heard the ringmaster getting hit, which made him look out of his window, then how did he see it? After all, Russell was only hit once!

Moe says that Russell was already face down in the snow: and indirectly tells us that Franziska tampered with his testimony!

Tricky, tricky...

Even if he didn't see the actual crime, Moe is still adamant that he saw Max! He's sure that he saw his symbols—say it with me now, silk hat, cloak! Wait. There's something missing! Even though Moe got a good enough look to see the silhouette of his face, he didn't see the roses?! Trilo saw all of Max's symbols, though. His Honor is 99% sure that Moe saw the defendant: but that 1% of doubt is enough for him to suspend his verdict... unless we don't find any contradictions in his next testimony!

Hooh, boy! Alright. Put your game face on! Moe testifies that Max had his hat on the entire time that he was at the crime scene and we finally, finally, get a break. After all, the silk hat was left behind! Moe is adamant that he saw Max leave the scene of the crime with the hat still on, and tells us that he walked away. This is impossible: the footprints prove it! Moe admits more plainly now that Franziska told him not to tell the truth: an understandably outraged Judge snaps at Franziska, flatly telling her "enough out of you!" after learning without a doubt that she tampered with Moe's testimony.

Moe, defeated, is finally ready to tell us how Max left the...

...scene...

of the crime.

Oh, you've gotta be shitting me.

I... I don't even... what?

There's a really funny line of dialogue here—Phoenix can (rightfully) ask if this is all a Kafkaesque dream only for Franziska to whip him and ask if this feels like a dream. His Honor demands more investigation and calls an end to today's proceedings, leaving us dumbfounded and with far more questions than answers. In the Defendant's Lobby, Max inadvertently tells us how his trick works: he uses invisible wires to hoist him through the air, which gives us a bit of leeway given that no such wires were found at the crime scene.

In any case... trial is now at an end!

Investigation, Day Two

This day of investigation is rather short, all things considered. After freaking out Maya by pulling the ol' detachable thumb trick (fun fact: if you present the bottle of pepper to Maya, she admits that she likes to put pepper on both her hamburgers and her PB&Js), we head down to the Detention Center to talk to Max. Apparently, a TV crew is already planning on a special where he escapes from prison! After he's acquitted, of course.

Apparently, the flying trick is much harder than just a few invisible wires. Maya tries to get him to be more friendly with the other circus members but he dismisses her outright: as much as everybody at the circus hates Max, it seems he hates them right back. He labels them as void of ambition, compared to the illustrious prizes he's won! He gives us a picture of the International Grand Prix: the first time he's ever flown on stage. We present the photo to Max and he tells us that the bust is in the cafeteria: but we checked it out and there definitely wasn't a bust there. Are the pieces already starting to fall into place?

all of the lights all of the lights bah bah bahbahbahbah BAH BAH BAHBAHBAHBAH bah bah

Once we get back to the Berry Big Circus, Ben and Trilo are performing a round singing act. Gotta admit: that's pretty impressive! We give the ring back to Ben, who's happy to take it. Talking to him, Ben says that he thought it was the Ringmaster until he saw those symbols. Are they really that identifiable?

In any case, we head back to the murder scene and stumble upon Detective Gumshoe! Apparently he's there interrogating Moe so Franziska doesn't have to. I can't say that I blame her. Franziska's actually inside the lodging house itself: if the killer really did fly away, then he'd have to passed by Acro's room. We make a mental note to check it out after Franziska's left.

We decide to do some sleuthing and find Moe ourselves. He's not in his room, but we do find him in the cafeteria! After giving us a riddle, he's ready to answer more of our questions. He's in a more dour mood than usual. Maybe he should go see Pagliacci.

And there's still debate over whether he's bisexual?

Moe is still absolutely adamant about what he saw. With no psyche-locks, no less! He must be telling the truth: but how does that make any sense? We get to talking about Max a bit more, and Moe is apparently starting to see where he's coming from. In any case, about five days ago, Max's bust up and disappeared! There's something else that's different, too. There was a note plastered on the bulletin board, addressed "To The Murderer"! Furthermore, it was up there the day before the murder!

We go back to the Lodging House but Gumshoe runs away. Apparently he's got a pager or something that warns when Franziska's showing up, and it's beeping like crazy.

Wait.

Franziska's showing up?

She whips Maya out of the way and inserts herself into our conversation! She's quick to tell us that she's absolutely sure she'll win tomorrow. Great. We actually get to talk to Franziska for once: apparently, she's got her hands on something big. This is bad! She even pulls another page out of her father's book and tells us that she's got conclusive evidence and a conclusive witness.

When it comes to revenge, though, she's a little more private. Apparently, she's not getting revenge for her father—who has apparently died in prison—but instead for "him". Her "little brother"... Miles Edgeworth.

And so Franziska's loathing comes to light.

Phoenix is outraged at Franziska for even bringing him up. She's quick to blame him for his disappearance, though, and there's a good reason for this. After 1-4 and 1-5, with Manfred's arrest and the reveal that he used forged evidence to convict Darke, Edgeworth apparently was never the same.

One day, he just vanished. There was only a single piece of evidence left behind: a small note in his office, emblazoned with the words...

Javert remained for some moments motionless, gazing at this opening of the darkness, and considered the invisible with an intentness which resembled attention.

Franziska is quick to deny that Edgeworth is dead, even though Phoenix has accepted it. Perhaps she could be right: she defiantly says that Phoenix killed the prosecutor in him, not the man, although this could easily just be the first stage of grief talking. Phoenix snaps at both Maya and Franziska, shouting "I've had enough of you!" at Franziska, before storming off to Acro's room with Maya tagging along.

We get to meet Acro, who introduces himself by his real name of Ken Dingling. Although he used to be an acrobat, he's unfortunately confined to a wheelchair and can't perform anymore. We get to talking with him: and he's evidently lived a very sad life. His parents ran away from a failing business situation and abandoned him, with the Ringmaster taking him in out of the kindness of his heart. When it comes to Regina, though, there seems to be an underlying hatred there: wonder why?

Maya can't help but inquire about his wheelchair. Acro's happy to explain it to her: the nerves in his legs have been very badly damaged. He can't even stand, let alone walk. When it comes to what caused his nerve damage, however...

What could he possibly be hiding?

Acro says that he injured his legs during practice about six months ago. He's undergoing physical therapy, and one day he might be able to walk again, but as for right now he can't even stand up. We get to talking about the murder itself and apparently he can't believe what he saw: he's Franziska's decisive witness, alright. When we show him the note, he tells us to go talk to Regina about it: so we do just that!

When we find Regina, we're nearly attacked by Regent again. She's quick to calm him down, though, and Regina explains why she's not terribly broken up about her father's death: when people die, she explains, they just become stars in the sky. Right. Okay, sure. Regina says that she was trying to scare off Money, which is why Regent almost killed us. Apparently, he stole a costume of hers! She asks us to get it back for her, and before we can say anything, Maya takes the reigns of the conversation and promises to get it back for her.

We start talking to her about the note. She tells us that it was in her pocket: and she found it after she brought breakfast to Acro's room. Curiouser and curiouser. Regina was the person who put it on the bulletin board, thinking it was addressed to somebody else—on the morning of the murder, no less.

Depends on how much you take.

Heading back to Moe's room, we find Regina's vest in Money's hands! After imitating a monkey to get it back from him, Maya tries it on: only to find that it's way too big. When we give it back to Regina, she explains that it's a vest... for a lion. This was Léon's. Regina's finally ready to talk about him, it seems.

Regina and Léon had a trick where she would stick her head in his mouth. One day, during practice, Léon was performing this trick with somebody else and bit down on their head. After the accident, that's when Russell decided to kill him: the lion had become a liability.

Everything is finally falling into place. Before we head back to Acro's room, though, we decide to stop by the cafeteria. Moe's in there cooking up a storm, and we get to talking to him while he's making some sliders! He tells us a few things: that Acro was incensed when he learned Russell died; that he's actually thinking about becoming the new ringmaster; and that Max is... well, right on a lot. He'd only try becoming ringmaster if everybody got over "the tragedy", though. We try to pry, and...

Livin' in a wicked world...

Psyche-locks! Luckily, we've got the tools to crack them. Moe tries to get us to eat but, like me, Phoenix says that he prefers grilled chicken sandwiches. We already know what the tragedy was: the accident involving Léon. Moe says that he promised somebody he wouldn't say anything: and who holds a grudge against Regina, Léon's owner and tamer? Acro.

Moe's ready to spill the beans. It wasn't Acro that was hurt by Léon: it was his brother, Sean "Bat" Dingling. Bat stuck his head in Léon's mouth and Léon bit down... smiling all the while. Bat suffered massive brain trauma and is in a coma he'll likely never wake up from; nobody died, but in Moe's own words, it probably would've been better if somebody did. After the accident, Russell cut his losses and shot Léon.

Knowing the mood is far too dour for burgers, Moe decides to try and lighten things up by spraying some pepper on Maya, who quickly starts to sneeze. Regina also used to sneeze whenever she was introduced to pepper and Bat used to tease her by sprinkling pepper around her all the time.

Anyways: we have all the pieces now. We just have to put them together! We go back to Acro's room and confront him about the accident. Six months ago, Acro was also attacked by Léon: or perhaps "battled" is a better term. He must've fought off Léon after the lion bit down on Bat's head. Acro keeps telling us that it was an accident, but his last psyche-lock isn't broken.

...What if he thinks it wasn't? Acro's calm demeanor breaks down whenever he talks about Regina, after all. Does he think she was responsible for what happened to Bat? We overplay our hand a bit, but we know for a fact that he does hate Regina. Why? Well, think about it. She found the note in her pocket after she delivered breakfast to him. He must've slipped it into her pocket! "To The Murderer": the murderer of Bat, not Russell!

The tragedy of Acro...

Knowing his secret's out, Acro concedes defeat. He gives us the scarf Bat was wearing when Léon bit him: it's covered in blood... but before we can do anything with it, Franziska barges in and takes the scarf! Phoenix isn't dissuaded, though. He's starting to put it together!

Trial, Day Three

Before trial begins, Regina comes to give Max a glass of milk. Apparently, Moe told her that she should be here for trial. I guess he knows what we're about to uncover and figured she should know the truth. Maybe he's not such a bad guy after all. He comes in and we have a discussion: when Phoenix says he's going to face down the real culprit, Moe agrees with us in thinking that it's Acro. Today is a trial of evidence instead of argument: he warns us that Acro is used to putting his life on the line and that this won't be easy.

When trial begins, Franziska is going full-force on the idea that Max flew away from the scene of the crime and calls Acro to the stand. The crime scene was right below his window, and in his first testimony he says that he only saw Max's back but that he was sure it was him flying away. We quote Franziska herself, saying there's no way that actually happened, and proceed with cross-examination.

We decide to drill Acro a bit. The lights in his room were turned off, but he still says he saw Max: he recognized the cloak and hat. This, unfortunately, isn't possible. Why? Simple. It's the hat! It was at the crime scene, after all. So how did Acro see it? It presumably fell off of Max's head, after all!

We're going full steam ahead!

We're only a single testimony into today's proceedings and we're already accusing Acro! Franziska tries to play to the crowd and Acro himself says that he couldn't even leave his room. We're able to see right through Franziska's trick, though. She's trying to get us to name an accomplice and we say "no dice". There are many questions we need to answer: the first one being where Acro was.

This is an easy one. He can't leave his room on his own, so he had to have been in there. Everything is starting to fall into place! Acro asks us how he committed this murder: and we present Max's bust! If it was dropped from a third story window and dropped on somebody's head, then there's no way you could survive that. Franziska manages to convince His Honor to allow Acro to testify again.

Acro's counter-argument is rather simple. He might've had the upper body strength, being an acrobat and all, but the lower body strength? He's functionally paralyzed from the waist down. It would be impossible for him to pick up the bust and look outside of the window: thus, he could not see the ringmaster, and thus, he could not have dropped the bust on his head.

We do have an idea, though. Remember the wooden box under Russell's body? We accuse Acro of not having to look outside his window: all he needed to do was aim for where he knew Russell would be. This would easily be achievable by placing the wooden box under his window beforehand! Who placed it? Acro, of course: he could've simply attached a rope to the box and put it down in front of his window.

Maya, you smart cookie!

Franziska counters by saying Russell's head could've been anywhere when picking up the box. This is not true, though! The box has handles on the sides. To pick it up properly, you'd need to squat down and lift with your legs! Your head would be in the same place. After all, you're not moving your upper body!

Acro has a simple counter-argument. The bust was in the cafeteria. How, then, did he obtain it? He can't leave his room. We've got an answer, though. Remember that hoard in Acro's room? They're all things that Money brings back. A tuba, the ring... certainly a shiny bust wouldn't be out of the question. Money lives in Acro's room, after all! Bronze may not be shiny, but the platinum cards in its hands certainly are. We've proven that Acro's culpability is entirely possible!

Franziska shoots back: Max was seen at the crime! Who, then, did Moe see? Well... what if it was the bust? Franziska interrupts us but we get this awesome part where Phoenix interrupts her.

I wish we got more scenes like this!

Just because Moe saw Max, that doesn't mean he saw Max the person! The biggest question right now is how the cloak got attached to the bust. Although Franziska is trying to lead us into saying somebody put it on, we don't fall for it: the cloak got snagged on the bust! Why? Because Russell was wearing Max's costume!

Phoenix paints us a full picture of what happened that night. Russell went out to the plaza, found the box, and was killed by the bust dropping on his head. Acro then pulled the bust upwards: Max's cape, however, got caught on the bust's platinum cards and flew upwards with the bust, creating the illusion that Max was flying away from Russell's body! Ben had seen Russell walk by earlier wearing Max's costume and Moe saw the bust being lifted towards the air, completing the trick!

Although we've figured it out, Franziska and His Honor demand evidence. Remember what Moe said about the symbols? The silk hat flew away with the bust: it has a hat on its head, after all, and the real silk hat was found at the crime scene! Ergo, the silk hat that Moe saw was the hat that was part of the bust! Why didn't Moe see the white roses? Because the cape got snagged on the back of the bust: if it was on the front, then Moe would've seen the roses!

We have means and we have opportunity. Franziska points out that we still need one more thing: motive. Why would Acro kill his foster father? With that question still in the air, court is briefly adjourned for a ten minute recess so His Honor can process the facts before him.

Hm...

In the defendant's lobby, Max is shocked to hear that Acro was the real murderer. Maya thinks that Acro pinned it on him on purpose, and Gumshoe pops in with some new evidence: Bat's scarf that Acro was about to give us! Additionally, it looks like the circus is standing behind Max—there's an entire dairy's worth of milk waiting for him!

Gumshoe also has a few cryptic messages for us. Yesterday, some "final plans" were set into motion—apparently, everything that's happening right now is according to von Karma's plan! She can't be that smart, can she?! He leaves us with one last message from her: "Nothing is ever truly decided until the very end."

We don't have time to figure this out, however, as court reconvenes! Franziska asks Acro to testify about his relationship with the victim and asks us for proof for a motive. Acro testifies and we refuse the right to cross-examine him: after all, I think we've got enough pieces to finally put everything together. What was Acro's motive? It's rather simple.

He didn't have one.

The truth comes to light.

Acro was not aiming for Russell Berry. He was aiming for Regina: the girl he holds responsible for Bat's coma. When asked for proof, we present the note: remember that Acro slipped this into Regina's pocket? He had no idea who had arrived at the plaza. He simply thought it was Regina and dropped the bust: he couldn't look outside of his window due to his disability. Russell found the note, which stated it had decisive evidence of her culpability, and went in her place.

What is this decisive evidence? The pepper shaker. Russell was taking the box with him because it had this inside of it! Regina sprinkled pepper on Bat's scarf. This made Léon sneeze... and bite down on Bat's head while he was in his mouth.

Acro tells the truth: this is what happened six months ago. There is still no proof, however, that he committed this murder! After all, where's the murder weapon? Von Karma tells us that she turned his room upside-down and didn't find it. Without the murder weapon, there's no proof that it was the murder weapon! His Honor ultimately agrees with Franziska here—without conclusive evidence, our arguments no longer hold water.

That is, until Maya speaks up!

Tongue aside, she's on fire today!

With Maya buying us a bit more time, we manage to figure this out. We know it isn't in the Big Top, and thanks to Franziska's surprise search of his room, it can't be in there either. So... where's the most obvious place for him to hide something out of sight?

Wheelchair users will occasionally wear blankets to keep their legs warm and comfortable as well as provide a bit of privacy. Acro is wearing one right now: and we've only got one shot at this. We ask Acro to take off his blanket. After all... what if the bust was under there?

Acro knows he has nowhere left to go. He's been figured out: and, with tears in his eyes, admits that we are correct. The bust, which he used to murder the ringmaster, is under his blanket.

Exit stage left.

He finally admits everything that happened. Bat had a crush on Regina and teased her with pepper: with how hard she sneezed, it was impossible not to laugh. One day, Regina decided to get back at him by putting pepper on his scarf. Unfortunately, this was the same day that he decided to impress her by putting his head in Léon's mouth: the lion sneezed, bit down on his head, and the rest was history.

Although Regina tried to console Acro by telling him Bat would become a star, but laughing at this only enraged him even further. How could she be so callous to the fact that his brother was effectively dead? Although he briefly considered suicide, he had another plan in mind: murder.

Max Galactica is declared not guilty. Regina is inconsolable, but we manage to calm her down by telling her Bat is still alive. When he wakes up, she says, she'll be right by his side. Moe tells Max that he's free to leave: he'll be taking the position as the circus's new ringmaster. Max is happy to help him in his future endeavors: after all, if Moe wants to make the Berry Big Circus the best the world has ever seen, then it needs the world's greatest magician!

Epilogue

Gumshoe is on the telephone with somebody. They're discussing today's trial: it all went to plan. Not Franziska's, of course, but the person he's talking to. After he praises Phoenix's defensive skills, he tells Gumshoe his plane is about to leave.

Prosecutor Miles Edgeworth lives again.

What Really Happened?

Two brothers, Ken ("Acro") and Sean ("Bat"), were abandoned by their parents and adopted by a circus ringleader named Russell Berry. The two decided to repay him by becoming acrobats, and Sean developed a crush on Russell's daughter, Regina, teasing her by spraying pepper near her and causing her to sneeze all day. Wanting to impress her with a dangerous stunt, he decided to put his head in Léon the lion's mouth: Regina, however, tried to reverse-prank him by putting pepper on his scarf to make him sneeze. This had a tragic consequence: Léon sneezed and bit down on Bat's head, and when Acro tried to save his brother the lion attacked him, causing him to be paralyzed from the waist down.

Russell covered up the incident, killing the lion and saying that Acro and Bat had simply retired. Regina was none the wiser; she said that Bat had simply become a star, in line with what her father told her after her mother died. Acro was incensed by her aloof nature and eventually couldn't handle it anymore. He decided to get revenge by killing her: he told her to come by the plaza at 10:00 PM, ominously labeling her a "murderer", and placed a large wooden box with the pepper that Regina used right under his window. Russel Berry found the letter (it was snuck into Regina's pocket, and she put it up on the billboard thinking it belonged to somebody else). An enraged Russel decided to go to the plaza, and when Acro thought that Regina was passing by his window, he dropped a heavy bust of fellow circus performer Max Galactica out of it.

At the same time, Max and Ben are having an argument over Regina Berry, who they both wish to win the heart of. In a fit of rage, Max attacked Ben with a glass bottle and stole his puppet Trilo.. Russell called Max to his office and chastised him, but then the clock hit 10 and Russell had to meet the person who left the note: telling Max to stay in his office, but not before stealing a spare costume of his to travel to the plaza in disguise. Max decided to hide Trilo in Russell's trophy case to permanently shut Ben up, as the poor man can't talk without him. Ben saw Russell passing by and assumed he was Max, still despondent over losing his puppet.

Russell immediately died and the bust got caught on his cape, dragging it upwards to the shock of Moe, who had been woken up by the impact! As Acro pulled the bust up, the cloak created the illusion of Max flying away from the scene, and Moe was shocked to see "Max" flying away from a murder!

Thinking he had gotten away with murder, Acro decided to burn the cape and hide the bust under his wheelchair blanket: which would eventually prove to be his downfall.

THOUGHTS

I think it's genuinely fascinating how quickly JfA such a massive nosedip in quality from 2-2 to 2-3. 2-2 is by no means one of the best cases in the franchise, but it's still a very solid mystery with great characters and some awesome music. 2-3 has none of that. The mystery is incredibly outlandish, the music is grating, and the majority of the main cast are poorly written at best.

I'll go over what I actually like about this case first. Like I said, I genuinely do like Moe, and I think this case's art direction is incredible. It's my favorite looking case in JfA. Max's sprite when he's splaying his hand out and facing the camera is incredibly well made, especially for the time this game came out! The art direction team really went all-out with this case and it shows. I also really like some of the mystery: I think Acro in particular is a great culprit, and he's probably my favorite in JfA to be honest. I also love the reminiscence theme: it first plays when Moe is talking about Bat's accident, and it's probably my favorite reminiscence theme in the game. It's very sad but still has a kind of circus-like vibe that I think fits in very well for a tragedy at a place of joy. It's not SL-9 Reminiscence good, but it's better than DL-6.

I also honestly really like Day 2 of trial. I think the back and forth between Phoenix and Franziska is great, and I love Acro holding his own on the stand. The fact that Acro not being able to leave his room is the one thing that makes this murder possible is a really cool one, and I think it's a really cool way to bring in the traits that only he can have to make him undeniably the culprit instead of simple slips of the tongue or pieces of evidence: the smoking gun isn't testimony or a single piece of evidence, it's the fact that all the pieces of evidence only make sense if Acro can't leave his room! I also love how dark this case is willing to get: Acro is fully willing to murder a minor, which is something that only comes up very rarely in Ace Attorney but always makes a case feel so much darker and meaningful.

As one final note of praise: I love this case's ending. It wraps up everything very neatly, and I love how Edgeworth played a part in settling everything! Gumshoe in particular is honestly near his best in this case: while this isn't his best showing, he's a key figure in making sure this case ended up the way it did and he's a stand-out!

...But then we arrive at the obvious.

The love arc between Max, Ben/Trilo, Bat, and Regina is incredibly creepy and incredibly poorly written. Rather than adding a flair for the dramatic and making the case more interesting, it makes Max and Ben look like cupcake chasers (free cookie if you get that reference: and no, not the obvious one, but the person who coined it). I mean, seriously: Max is 21, Bat was 22, Ben is 31, and they're all lusting over a teenage girl? The jokes—and criticisms—write themselves and it makes this case incredibly uncomfortable to replay.

And that's not even getting to the actual mystery... which isn't bad. I think the core concept of this mystery, which is indeed a locked mystery which are my favorites for AA, is... good? I think it had a lot of potential. I think the trick of the killer's footprints not showing up being due to the murder weapon literally being dropped on the victim's head is unique, if not predictable. The prosecution's case is very flimsy, however, and that entire side of the case just feels rushed and not very well thought-out. The fact that a major part of the plot still revolves around a love triangle between men in their twenties and a sixteen-year old girl is incredibly off-putting and could easily be fixed if Regina was also in her twenties. This is compounded by the fact that this case is riddled with sexual innuendo, from Maya making a subtle dick joke (which, to be honest, I found pretty funny), to Phoenix wondering about Max's "bust", to Franziska offering to whip Moe after trial if he's into BDSM! Maybe it's my sex repulsion talking but I just find the humor incredibly flat: even outright disgusting and out-of-character at times, especially in a circus of all places!

Let's also talk about some of the surrounding details of the plot. How did Ben think Russell was Max? Russell was far shorter and rounder than him and had a massive mustache! My first thought would be "why in the world is he wearing one of Max's costumes", not that he is Max. It's an incredibly hard to believe plot-hole that, alongside with the downright creepy love triangle, makes this case incredibly hard for me to like. Also: THE CAPE LANDED ON THE BUST?! WHAT?! I'm sorry for not mincing my words here, but that is incredibly stupid and so offensively contrived that my heart actually hurts whenever I read it. How did it land on the bust? It was on his back! It was presumably clasped to his clothes! Phoenix, WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?! Why does this work?! WHY? HAS I EVER?

Let's talk about the characters to move on from it! Regina is grating, Ben's gimmick gets tired very fast, Max is creepy; the only two characters I like are Moe and Acro, and even then they're examples that prove that the rest of the cast are among the weakest characters in the entire trilogy. They are not enjoyable, and even Acro feels a bit undercooked at times. The only one I enjoy on the whole is Moe, but even then... eh. I can't bring myself to say anything more than I think he's alright. I do think the clown being the most mature character is kind of funny, and I do like how he very clearly cares about everybody else, but like Regina and Ben I find his clown act very grating very quickly.

When it comes to non-case specific characters, even they tend to fall flat. I quite like His Honor's characterization here, especially with the way he tolerates absolutely zero nonsense from Franziska and Moe in the first day of trial, but Franziska feels a little out of character at times (such as offering to... whip Moe...) and Maya feels off, for lack of a better word. It's not game-breaking, but this is inarguably the weakest showing for any character in the game in my opinion. What I will say, however, is that I really love Franziska's characterization when it comes to Edgeworth. She's very obviously deeply hurt and incredibly embittered towards Phoenix about his apparent death, and even though she's not making that very clear it still comes across. This is a case that really reinforces that she isn't an adult: she's a teenager the same age as Maya. She's scared and confused, and if 2-3 does nothing else then it manages to really nail down that part of Franziska's character—and given that she's my favorite prosecutor, I love that. When it comes to Phoenix, though, he's just straight up mean at times. It feels like he just straight-up hates Maya at times, which is just... not Phoenix? There's still a lot of the best friend-level friendly teasing between them, but there's also times Phoenix just straight up insults her. When you find Regina's vest, for instance, he'll just straight up-tell her she's fat. Like, what the fuck, dude?

Anyways! I'm falling firmly into the court of popular opinion by saying that 2-3 is one of my least favorite cases in the entire series: it's in my bottom three and it is not particularly close. It's the Last Salute to the Commodore of Ace Attorney: I think it's very tiring and very weird, and the fact that a circus being the scene of a seemingly impossible murder has so much potential that was thoroughly wasted really hurts my heart. Unfortunately, even a standout Day 2 of trial can't save Turnabout Big Top from my lowest rating thus far and our first F-tier case.

Next time, we'll be moving on to the fandom's darling child: 2-4—the famous Farewell, My Turnabout. See you then!

Overall Rating: 1/10

FAVORITE LINES

"Ab-so-lute-ly... FABULOUS!!" (Absolutely cringe-inducing.) - Max Galactica and Phoenix Wright, in the detention center

"Your last name is 'Woodman'? *snicker*" - Maya Fey, meeting Ben Woodman

"'Ill-bred'!! Are you talking about the same Ben!?" "'Told her he was in love with her'!! Are you sure this is the Ben we are talking about!?" - Maya Fey and Phoenix Wright, after Max tells them Ben confessed his love to Regina

"I'm not even sure if this day hasn't been some kind of Kafkaesque dream... OWWW!!" "Now do you think it's still a dream!? Huh, Mr. Phoenix Wright!?" - Phoenix Wright and Franziska von Karma, after Moe says he saw Max fly away

"... You're joking right? You think the monkey has got proverbial 'game'?" "Of course. That monkey doesn't fake the funk on a nasty dunk." - Phoenix Wright and Maya Fey, examining a basketball hoop in Acro's room

CASE RANKINGS

Reunion, and Turnabout (7/10)

The Lost Turnabout (4/10)

Turnabout Big Top (1/10)

[yukii0nna]

Something for fun

Miraculous Luck: Four Magical children grow up while one of their dad refuse to let go.

X.U: Girl wants to find brother, gets into trouble along the way.

Road Less Taken: Arm Detective Agency if it's a bunch of wizard kids and illegal.

Shine on Kids: A club where kids solve supernatural mysteries in a world of superheroes.

Turnabout Tales: Modern Fairy tales involving law and other strange happenings.

Circus: More bizarre kids being heroes this time fighting evil from earth or space.

@bakawitch @zexal-club @theautisticcentre @mayameanderings

[sheriffmango]

Hot take: Turnabout Goodbyes was won with sheer perseverance and dumb luck. Basically everything was stacked against them and it was only a series of coincidences that was able to give Edgeworth the double innocent verdict

This is not bashing Turnabout Goodbyes btw, I love it, it's my favorite AA1 case, it's just that I feel it was based far less on what we had and far more on how lucky we could get with how others reacted and the breadcrumbs that slipped into our hands (as opposed to the other (previous, at least) cases that could be inferred relatively easily, at least the end result, if not the path to get there)

Sorry if this is long, I have big thoughts :D

Yeah Phoenix definetely won that case through sheer dumb luck, personally I like it as I think it's intentional because: 1) it's von karma prosecuting (Game wants us to have the "Oh shit how are we gonna beat this guy?" effect.) I feel that MVK's "Oh shit" factor would've been mitigated if it went as you wanted it to. A lot of other things would've been made less cooler actually. Turnabout goodbyes is meant to feel hopeless for Phoenix basically. 2) Winning things through either turning anthills into mountains or miraculously getting some important evidence is Phoenix's thing and I eat it up everytime. It also adds onto that parody part of AA where it's meant to shit on Japan's wackass court system But despite that this is a 8/10 take good job anon !! (As you can see im a very simple person and i am also sleep deprieved LMFAO)

[prowlingthunder]

Fic Writer 20 Questions

Thanks for the tag, @blirzy

Rules: In a new post, paste these following questions with your own answers, and then tag somebody, just for fun!

1.) How many works do you have on ao3?

Right now? 457. mumble My yearly goal was 450. 2025 will hopefully see me to 475 or even 500.

2.) What’s your ao3 word count?

478,155.

3.) What fandoms do you write for?

whistles Right now I have 95 different fandoms. Basically if you give me something tasty, I will fic it eventually.

4.) What are your top five fics by kudos?

The Mouth Of Babes, Star Wars. Ner Jupayr Alorir Ni Staabi At Gar «My Path Leads Me Right To You», Star Wars, Cody/Obiwan Soulmate Fic. Turnabout, Chaton, Miraculous Ladybug. Nekomata, Sword Art Online, Sachi Lives, lowkey Sachi/Kirito. Ghostwhite, Star Wars, Lupercalia fic where the clones are wolves.

5.) Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Sometimes! Sometimes I cannot help myself and be delighted, and sometimes I'm just not sure what to say.

6.) What’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

nothing more than love and space dust, Rogue One. Cassian pulls the trigger.

7.) What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

…. eyeballs dust bunnies Nekomata, maybe?

8.) Do you get hate on fics?

That's what the delete button is for.

9.) Do you write smut? If so what kind?

The kind that evolves into 20k.

10.) Do you write cross overs? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

Please define "crazy".

11.) Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Unfortunately yes.

12.) Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes! I've got two in Russian that I know of.

13.) Have you ever cowritten a fic before?

Many A Time.

14.) What’s your all time favourite ship?

Myself/rest.

15.) What’s a WIP you’d like to finish, but doubt you ever will?

Uhh…..

16.) What are your writing strengths?

I have great ideas?

17.) What are your writing weaknesses?

I have great ideas.

18.) Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

YEssssss.

19.) First fandom you wrote for?

First one I ever wrote for? Gosh. That'd probably be… well, no, I didn't write anything down when I was learning Escaflowne… Typing out someone else's Sailor Moon fic for my keyboard lessons doesn't count…

An old, ancient, probably lost forum for Saint Seiya definitely got some really bad ancient fic of mine. That would be the oldest I've written.

20.) Favourite fic you’ve ever written?

That's like choosing a favorite child--

Hell Hath No Fury, Fallout 4. It's my "don't think just write" fic.

@mtraki @mandakatt @azems-familiar @ann-i-inthestars @medic-6116

And anybody else I might have missed!

[itsbebebrainrotting]

Top 10 book titles (not books itself, specifically titles)((can do fics instead if you want))

Thank fuck you put the options for fics on there lmao (I barely read normal books anymore its upsetting TwT. my fanfic bookmarks grow and my irl bookshelves have barely changed in the past 4 years).

Time to go thru the faves in my ao3 bookmarks!

But you are the sun, and I am the moon

I used to think people were good now I think they're people

love you a latte

loneliness, a comedy

The Universe grows darker with each dying star (and you're my only source of light)

catch me up on getting out of here

Much Preferable to Grief

Hostile. Work. Environment

Maintaining a Professional Distance (<- fun fact: iirc this was the first fic I ever read on ao3. yes its an only one bed miraculous ladybug fic. I think it still slaps)

turnabout therapy

[princess-of-the-corner]

Ok but who would be the victim Andre pins on Chloe?

If the victims identities actually matter in these, I know nothing about Ace Attorney except for the gay lawyers memes and the titty balloons

Okay so like.

While the victims in the case matter to each case, some matter more to the main cast than others.

Like like like. Sometimes you're going to have cases where it's just a murder happened and the defendant hires the MC to defend them. For example, Turnabout Samurai where the actor of a kid's tv show is accused of murdering his co-star. Ofc who the victim is matters to the defendant and the real killer and the other witnesses, but the only pre-existing connection to any main characters are that some of the cast are fans of the show.

But then you have Turnabout Goodbyes, which ties heavily to Edgeworth's backstory as he's the one accused of murder, and we find out about his father's murder 15 years prior, what his connection to Phoenix is, and why Edgeworth is Like This™.

Back to Miraculous Justice:

Given that this would be a Chloé vs. Andre confrontation, the victim should be someone involved with them. At minimum it could be anyone either working or staying at the hotel. You could also bring in Jean-whateverthefuck as the victim. Final option would be Andre having moved on to a new partner after all this time, and didn't tell her about his whole child abandonment thing.

[jotunvali02]

Playing Ace Attorney Turnabout Samurai part 2

The monkey statue is a talking clock too? And it miraculously registered the hour the statue fell around? How convenient!

WTF man?? Maya is 17! The fuck is your pedo-problem?? Eewwyuck.🤮 She could totoally file a complaint against you and win, you know. Btw, Phoenix WHY THE FUCK aren't you reacting to that pig about to sexually assault your MINOR friend a hundred times?? In front of you??

Maya, I could kiss you.🥰 I really thought we'd never find the trailer keys. And, well, you totally are doing Phoenix' job here while he is just too busy being a judgy contemptuous bitch with everyone.

Hammer was a singing samurai actor? Like floofy baby Hiro Sanada-chan? TAT

Also shut the fuck up, Feenie. Actors playing singing samurai are the most irresistible and the cutest.💕 You would swoon and die instantly if Edgeworth was one of them.

"Mia! What took you so long?"

Bitch, you're STILL expecting Mia to do YOUR job while YOU'RE asked and paid for it and while SHE IS DEAD ?? You expect a brutally murdered woman to do your job?

Here she should have taken a kendo sword and smack you with it!

[hotel-japanifornia]

I have so many questions after reading your wip list and I don't know where to start asking fhdkhjfshdkj. I'll start there. I am deeply curious about the "Phoenix Never Exists AU with a twist", especially the twist? (if the twist spoils the fic, don't tell me what it is 🫡)

Ok, so I'm glad you asked this, because I've been waiting for the opportunity to talk about this subject. Basically, ever since I heard about The Miraculous Turnabout, the idea of a "What if Phoenix never existed" AU has practically always piqued my interest. But, the more I thought about it, the more what I personally would happen began to diverge from well, pretty much every fic with that concept really.

Now, this is where the twist comes in: simply put, Mia Fey doesn't die by Redd White's hand. Instead, because the person who Dahlia gave the necklace to was either not interested in it and gave it back or was killed by Dahlia, I had it so that Mia practically puts her career on hold to pursue Dahlia. The idea was that in doing so, she would go missing and Maya would as well in trying to find her some years later.

One could assume that Mia wouldn't do this because of her mission to bring Redd White to justice but, remember that this is the woman who staked her badge on putting Dahlia away. I just don't see her not pursuing Dahlia especially after having at least one of her clients and her (potential) lover die by her hands.

Essentially, what this WIP entails is Godot becoming a detective instead of a prosecutor. He tackles on a few small cases before trying to get the one he really wants resolved opened again. One day, he meets a mysterious little girl who snuck out of her hometown; when questioned, she reveals that she used to have a cousin who would visit the city sometimes.

[kyojirokagenuma]

The Lost Twin Chapter Three

“At least it can’t be worse than last year.”

-Sam Giddings, 9:07 p.m.

  -March 2nd, 2014

Emily Davis was just waking up. She had slept in late that day. It was nearly noon. She yawned, shielding her eyes from the sun shining in on her face through the window. She threw off her blankets, heading for the shower. She passed her phone on the nightstand, which had been set to vibrate all night. After turning the water on, she stripped out of her night clothes and stepped into the tub. Just a short shower to start the day. Her hair didn’t need washing. She let out a long sigh as she felt the hot water rain down like tiny bullets against her skin. After a quick wash, she turned the water off, stepped out, and grabbed a towel. No one was home to see her naked, so she dint even bother wrapping body after drying it off. She still had a towel over her head, rubbing her brown hair, when she stepped back into her room and picked her phone up from the nightstand.

“Ten missed calls? What the hell? Who’s calling me at 3am?” she asked herself, scrolling down the list.

Josh three times. Sam twice. Josh again. Mike twice. Jess twice.

Weird. Did something happen, she thought? She would have to call one of them back and see what was going on. She finished drying her hair and tossed it on the chair in front of her desk as she scrolled through some of the morning news. She was hardly paying attention to them as she passed them by.

“Fuckin’ great, more cold?” she thought with a frown, placing a hand on her bare hip as she passed by the weather. “Politics, boring,” she sighed, combing past a story about the president. Next was something about sports. “I think that’s the team Mike likes. I wonder if he’d like a jersey or something for his bir-.”

BREAKING UPDATE: Miracle on Blackwood Mountain!  Daughter of Hollywood Mogul Found Alive!

Emily froze. Her mind just stopped working for a few seconds. Then her hand began trembling uncontrollably.

“No fucking way,” Emily said out loud, quickly clicking on the article.

She held her phone with both hands, her whole body shaking while she waited for it to load. Of course her internet had to suddenly crash now.

“Fuckin’ come on! Hannah or Beth?”

Suddenly she was shivering, like she had just gotten out of an ice bath instead of a hot shower. Finally, the page loaded. She read the first few lines of the article.

In what can only be described as a miraculous turnabout, the once grim case of the missing Washington twins has had a stunning breakthrough after nearly an entire month, when younger sister Elizabeth was found alive late last night by Blackwood forest rangers.

Underneath the paragraph was a picture of a ragged and injured Beth, a selfie that must have been taken with one of the ranger’s phones. She was smiling.

She was okay.

“Holy fucking shit!” Emily all but screamed. She clicked off the article and flew right over to her contacts.

There was no way Beth still had her working phone after missing a month. Josh was probably busy as hell dealing with all of it.

She called Sam. She picked up on the first ring.

“Emily, finally!” came her excited voice from the inherent end.

“Sam, I just saw the news!” Emily asked while hurrying to her wardrobe. She held the phone between her chin and shoulder as she started to get dressed. “Have you talked to her yet?”

“No, not yet. It’s a media frenzy over here. Only family can get into see her right now. She’s in the hospital. But she’s alive! She’s really alive!”

Emily pulled a pair of jeans on over her underwear. “Jesus Christ, I can’t believe this shit!”

“I know, it doesn’t seem possible.”

“Where are you? Right now?”

“I’m at the hospital. It’s St. Mary’s.”

“I’m on the way.”

“Alright, see you.”

Emily hung up and shoved her phone in her back pocket, then picked a clean bra out from her wardrobe. Once she was finished dressing, she hurried down the stairs and out the door. It took her until she jumped into her car to come to a sudden realization. She stopped, and turned off the car. She just sat there, sitting in her seat for minutes on end. A deep, troubled frown had replaced her once exhilarated expression. She took out her phone again and dialed Sam back.

“Hello?”

“Yeah, it’s me again. I . . . I just had a thought.”

“Yeah?”

“What if Beth doesn’t wanna see me? Or the others? I mean, the whole thing was my idea.”

“Emily, we talked about this. You couldn’t have known what would happen. Yeah, it was mean, but-.”

“Yeah, I know. You told me,” Emily said with a sigh. ”But, but I can’t shake it! I thought it would be funny. I told myself she deserved it for wanting to get with Mike, but don’t know if Beth will see it that way. What if she’s mad at me?”

“Well, she might be at first, but I also think she’ll probably forgive you if she really thinks you’re sorry. She’s not vindictive like that, and I know you’re really sorry.”

“Yeah, I am,” Emily said, her eyes falling. “You’ll tell her I am, right?”

“Of course. It’s your boyfriend that I’d be worried about.”

Emily’s frown deepened. She said nothing.

“He hasn’t changed his tube, huh?” Sam asked, noticing her silence.

“No, he still hasn’t even said sorry to Josh. He says we shouldn’t apologize just cause Hannah overreacted and went nuts. Says it’s her fault.”

“Asshole. No offense, Emily.”

“Whatever,” Emily deflected, not even having the energy to get angry.

“Emily, just come over, okay? We can figure this out when you get here.”

Emily pricked her lip, but nodded. “Yeah, okay,” she said, restarting the car.

“You’ve really surprised me on this Emily. You’re actually pretty sweet when you want to be,” she said in an almost teasing manner.

Emily rolled her eyes. “Okay, okay, cut out. I’ll be there soon.”

She hung up her phone and pulled out onto the road. The hospital was a good half-hour away, right in the heart of LA. Beth must have been doing alright if they transferred her there already. Emily wanted to get there as soon as possible, so she got on the expressway. She was approaching her exit when she got another call. Caller I.D. said Mike. She hit answer and brought it up to her ear.

“Hey babe, you heard about Beth, right? I’m headed there now.”

“Yeah, I heard. That’s, uh, that’s not why I called though. We gotta talk, Em.”

Her car rolled down the exit ramp towards an empty intersection. No one was at the light.

“Well, can it wait? I’m kind of driving to-.”

“Emily, I wanna break up.”

Emily's eyes shot wide. Her mouth fell halfway open just of shock. “What? What did you just say to me?”

“Sorry, Emily, but things just aren’t working out. I asked Jess out today, and she said yes. It’s over between us.”

Emily’s world was suddenly crumbling. Jess was her best friend. Why would she do this?

Emily didn’t even notice the light in front of her turn red, or that she was speeding up. This was about to get loud.

“What the fuck? Are you fucking kidding me? You prick!”

“See, that’s part of the reason we’re breaking up, Emily. You’re also so nasty, even to me.”

Emily was clutching the steering wheel so tight it was hurting her hand. She was flying in that little car now, the speedometer was going wild. Every ounce of blood in her body was burning red hot. “So you ask out my best friend? You fucking, you motherfucker! That’s why she’s been ignoring me! Fuck her! And fuck you! Sam was right about you, you piece of-.”

It took a blaring horn to finally break her focused rage. Her head twisted around to see an eighteen-wheeler on her left, barreling right at her through the intersection. Her heart stopped, her eyes wide.

She pulled the wheel as far right as it could go.

The truck slammed on the breaks.

The semi struck the front of her car. The whole engine block was ripped right out, her BMW torn in half. Emily screamed. Louder than she ever had before. What remained of her vehicle was spinning like a runaway tornado. Emily's head whipped side to side, trapped in spiraling metallic coffin. She caught a glimpse of what looked like a telephone pole as she spun across the intersection.

Emily finally came to more than an hour later. Her eyes fluttered open, her world totally out of joint.

“Emily?”

The voice sounded as if she were underwater. Emily was still swimming, about to break the surface. The light was so close.

“Emily?”

Emily found herself blinded by the light shining down on her from the ceiling. She tried to bring up her arm to shield her eyes, but found it restrained.

“Unhhhh,” she groaned.

“Emily, can you hear me?”

The brown-haired girl turned in the direction of the voice, the woman’s figure slowly coming into focus. A young blonde woman. She looked scared.

“Sam?” Emily finally said, managing to recognize her.

“Thank Christ you’re awake,” Sam sighed, a relieved smile forming.

“What the fuck happened?” she asked weakly, still unaware of her surroundings.

“You ran a stoplight and crashed into a huge truck. That’s what the doctor said anyway. Broke over a dozen bones.”

It was then Emily realized her arm was in a cast. So was her left leg. It was all coming back to her. The pain was coming back to her, and not just from her broken body.

“Oh, fuck. My car?” Emily frowned, already knowing the answer.

“Totaled. They said there was pretty much nothing left of it. You’re lucky to be alive, Emily. You really had never scared.”

A thought suddenly occurred to her. “Wait, is this the hospital Beth is at?”

“How do you think I got here so fast?” Sam snickered. “Don’t tell me you almost killed yourself trying to race to the hospital.”

Emily looked away. “No, that wasn’t it,” she said.

She bit her lip, feeling tears coming on fast. “That son of a bitch.”

“Em? What’s wrong?” Sam asked, tilting her head.

Sam rose from her seat and came closer as Emily began to cry. “H-he broke up with me. Over the phone.”

“What? You mean Mike?” asked a stunned Samantha.

Emily nodded weakly. “He asked out Jessica, who’s supposed to be my best fucking friend, and guess what? She said yes! So yeah, he called me on the road and he dumped me!”

Sam put the pieces together quickly. “He made you so upset you crashed your car?”

Emily said nothing. Sam made fists with her hands.

“What a bastard. I’m so sorry, Em.”

Emily didn’t offer a response, she was just sobbing. Sam looked to the open door, then stood up.

“Em, I’m gonna find a doctor. Tell them you’re awake. I’ll swing by later, okay? After you’ve got some rest.”

Emily managed another nod, but said nothing back. She watched Sam leave with a smile and a wave.

Emily faded back out shortly after.

By the time she woke up again, she had no idea what time it was, but the sky was dark. She had passed out for who knows how long. She lifted her head, looking out into the darkened hall. The was a light on somewhere out there. She didn’t see anyone though. There was a few empty chairs at a reception area outside. The hospital was dead quiet. All she could hear was the fan going from the vent on the ceiling. Must have been pretty late. She turned her head the other direction. just enough for her to barely make out a shrouded figure sitting in the chair. Someone was in there with her? She had a visitor this late?

“Sam? Is that you?”

Suddenly Emily heard the sound of helicopter propellers outside. Must have been someone being airlifted to the hospital. The chopper’s light shined bright overhead, illuminating a small streak across the room. Her visitor’s face was lit up for just a split second. Long enough for Emily to at least spot her dirty, ragged brown hair. Eyes cold and dead. Her once lively olive skin was badly decomposed. She wore a pair of mangled glasses. An unnerving smirk lay painted on her maggot-infested face. She rose to her feet, stepping out into the dim light. 

Emily’s visage twisted with dread. She just kept coming. Emily was immobile. She could do nothing but watch as the dead twin advanced, until she was looming over her hospital bed. A deafening shriek echoed through the emptied halls.

Emily shot upwards in her bed, drenched in sweat. Sudden agony shot through her system from straining her broken body. The brown-haired girl fell back against the bed, groaning and writhing in pain and discomfort. Her eyes darted about the room. It was day now. The next day? Or the same? She wasn’t sure.

“Fuck, was that a dream? Fuck me,” she said, short on breath.

She slumped her head back on her pillow, trying to get a hold of herself. That was new. That had never happened before. She hoped it never would again.

“Christ. What the fuck? That sucked.”

A nurse came to the door, having heard her cries of pain. “Miss Davis, you’re awake again. That’s good,” she said with a smile, coming to her side.

“Yeah, yeah I am,” said a breathless Emily. “What day is it?”

She gave Emily a drink of water before answering. “Friday,”

Emily’s mouth fell open. “D-did I pass out for two days?”

“Yes, you did. Your body needed the rest. Your parents were here yesterday, but you were asleep. Two other women came to check on you. The nice blonde girl, and that woman from upstairs, the missing one they found.”

Emily blinked. “Beth? Beth came to see me?”

“Yes,” said the nurse, fluffing her pillow and doing a few other things Emily wasn’t sure of. Checking all the nonsense that was attached to her no doubt. “Would you like me to tell her you’re awake? She seemed very interested in speaking to you.”

“Uh, yea, sure,” Emily said, an anxious feeling taking over her.

“Okay, I’ll let her know. I’ll go get you some food in the meantime.”

Emily tried her best to relax after the nurse left the room once more. On top of being stabbed in the back by both her best friend and her boyfriend and a victim of a major car accident, now she had nightmares to deal with. Emily sighed in exasperated disbelief.

“Fuck my fucking life.”

[inkedkoi]

Miraculous Turnabout Playlist

(and progress status)

For all the MT readers out there, Season 2 is still in progress and I swear I'm working on it. I'm just making sure everything is properly set up for reasons. *writer struggle noises*

If y'all knew me for a while now, you might've noticed that my insta has been permanently disabled. I'm debating on whether or not I should make a new account. But, for now, I'll be using Tumblr.

As a reward for being so patient, here is a playlist of songs inspired by the fic! Introducing:

Patrol Nights

If you have a song you'd like to add, don't hesitate to place the request in my ask box!

[musicalpancakes77]

Extremely interested in Ghost AU (the title so nice you say it twice lmao)

Hi Indigo!! omg the ghost au... god I haven't thought about it in so long, but as soon as you asked this and i saw it this morning I did indeed have so many thoughts about it 🥰 Thank you for asking!! This is gonna be slightly long I'm so sorry but stick with me LMAO

So the Ghost AU is a rather generic AU based off the peanut gallery from the movie Stardust- you know, the 2007 hit movie Stardust?? Surely we all know the one- but I say generic because I'm pretty sure at least half of the Ace Attorney fandom has individually, on their own time, went "Hey, what if Phoenix could see ghosts??" so like. It's really not THAT unique LMAO

But that's kinda what it is when you boil it down: an AU where Mia dies, befriends Greg in the "ghost world", and together the two of them have fun peanut gallery moments over the course of the OG trilogy. This is all possible by the magatama that Phoenix carries around of course; at first it's just their hushed voices, maybe a cold touch, but it develops into something more. By the time Phoenix starts cases from game 3 he begins to develop a more literal Sight for the deceased- I don't think the magatama cares who is using it, it doesn't discriminate, hell if Miles had it on him for long enough I'm sure he would have developed an ability to see them too. But in this AU it's just Phoenix dealing with joyful heckling from two more experienced (albeit dead) lawyers, Maya who complains it's so unfair that she's the spirit medium but she can't see them, Miles who would never believe this if you told him, and Pearls who is so happy to just be here LMAO

I never wrote more than about 7 pages in my document for this one- I barely got past the end of Turnabout Sisters 😭 I do still love the idea; if I were to ever come back to it I think I'd write it on a smaller scale than what my brain typically tries to achieve with fanfic (cough slowburn 100k stories COUGH) and I'd put a heavier importance on dealing with grief between all the comedic heckling 🤔

This is already one of my longer posts, but since you asked so kindly I can even provide a snippet or two, since I haven't talked about this AU in so long and there is an unfortunate chance it may never see the light of day again,,,

She wakes up to adrenaline, buzzing through her veins, with breaths that shouldn’t be choking in lungs that don’t exist. Her mind screams that there’s supposed to be pain- a single, blooming, unbearable pain in her temple- but miraculously, there is none. It’s just her, sitting in the dark, feeling like she’s having an out-of-body experience as her mind reels and reels over why she thought she was in pain, what she remembers, why she remembers being scared.  It takes a few moments of hushed breathing for it to hit her.  A hallowed clock, a wiretap, and a snake. 

“I would ask how she can watch that episode for the seventh time in a row, but that would be redundant since I know for a fact that Miles has watched it at least twenty times.”  Mia raises an eyebrow while Mr. Edgeworth hovers over the Wright & Co. office couch. Miles Edgeworth? Watching the Steel Samurai? At the same interest level or more than her literally obsessed younger sister, Maya?  “Miles Edgeworth, your son, the Demon Prosecutor? Watching the acclaimed children's show The Steel Samurai? I’d sooner think he’d die than watch a show like that.”  “Objection, Miles would rather die than admit to watching a show like that.”  Mia sits on the statement. “... You’re fucking with me.”  Maybe it’s the bluntness, maybe it’s the uncharacteristic use of language, but Mr. Edgeworth laughs to the point his hand meets his chest. Mia can’t help but giggle herself. Miles Edgeworth likes the Steel Samurai, who would have known. 

That's about it; thank you again for asking!! It was a joy to explain <3

[sonderwrit]

C107: Critical juncture

I Have to Be a Great Villain - Masterpost

One busy chase later, Wang Yi meets...a mysterious man?

WY: ……

WY: This what you mean by "warming people up?"

X: Yep. You won't get wet inside my body. 

X: It's pretty cozy, right?

WY: It is cozy…but I can't move like this, so we can't chase Xiao Yu and them.

WY: (He can control his body to not digest me? But he did suck up all the rainwater.)

X: Oh, that's true.

X: Then–

WY: !

WY: Ehhhhhhhhhhh?

X: Let's fly.

WY: What?!

WY: (Fly…he can fly?!)

WY: X, X? Is this safe? It doesn't seem like it can stay airborne for long. (It's too clumsy-looking…)

X: It's very safe.

X: X wasn't born on Earth, so I'm not limited by Earth rules.

X: I can take Wang Yi anywhere.

WY: Oh, sounds really miraculous…

WY: Hm? The rain seems to have stopped.

X: Mm.

X: The moon tonight…looks really beautiful.*

(T/N: *traditional Chinese saying to refer to your lover lol)

WY: …….

WY: ……

WY: Yeah.

WY: It's really pretty.

WY: (Why does it feel…so nostalgic?)

Xiao Yu: We're here.

XY: Um, are you leaving?

Merman: (......) *nods*

XY: Uff…

XY: ?

XY: …huh?

Merman: (I'm not leaving.)

Merman: (There's no Xiao Yu at horizon's edge, so I won't go.)

XY: T-that won't do!

XY: If you don't leave, you'll be captured by the research institute!

Merman: (It's fine.)

Merman: (I can transform into a human and walk on two legs.)

Merman: (No one will suspect it if they're told I'm a mute.)

XY: But I…but I… At any rate, calm down first. Let's find a hotel to rest tonight before deciding, ok?

WY: …….

WY: Huh? The male and female protagonist don't seem to be fulfilling their contract to return to the sea.

X: Oh?

S-0: *slurping drool*

[SPECIFICATION: The final mission is to help the female protagonist complete her contract with the mermaid and return to the sea.]

WY: AHHHHH—THEY LEFT!

WY: WHY ARE THEY GOING BACK AT THE CRITICAL JUNCTURE!

WY: LET'S GO FOLLOW THEM.

WY: (No relaxing before the last minute.) *has plenty of experience with turnabouts*

X: Oh okay.

WY: That there, we're friends of the two who just came in. Can you arrange a room for us next door to them?

–

WY: Hm?

Xiao Yu: It's a lot more comfortable after a shower.

WY: I can't hear a thing.

X: I can.

X: If they leave, I'll tell you immediately.

WY: Much thanks.

WY: Aish, though I said it's a vacation, I'm still giving my all. But I've never been to the sea much, so I'll treat it as a sightseeing trip.

X: A trip? Like a honeymoon trip?

WY: (He's acting, isn't he?)

WY: A honeymoon happens after marriage.

WY: Don't pretend, you already have two lives' worth of memories…

???: Wang Yi.

WY: Huh?

???: You will…

WY: ?!

???: …come find me, right?

WY: (W…what?)

???: I look forward to the day we meet.

WY: (X suddenly changed again. To that strange man from the other day.)

WY: X? No, you're not X.

WY: Who are you?

WY: Back then when you said I don't remember you anymore, what did that mean?!

—

MINI-THEATER:

X: Speaking of which, can Wang Yi give me something from your body to eat?

X: Hair, swear, saliva, and also…

WY: Don't say any more!