| Significant Positive |
|---|
● Carrying out a presidential assassination - 13
● The arrest of Blaise Debeste
|
| Neutral Positive |
|---|
● Meeting Miles Edgeworth - 19
● Kidnapping Kay Faraday - 5th
● Kidnapping John Marsh - 7th
|
| Trivial Positive |
|---|
● Eating Dad's sweets (fuzzy due to memory loss)
● The first time he played chess with Knightley - 12
● Performing in the circus show - 1st, day 93
|
| Significant Neutral |
|---|
● Plotting a (fake) presidential assassination
● Saving Dogen's life - 4th
● Running away from the orphanage - 23rd
● Being saved by Dogen - 17
● Being confronted by Edgeworth - 22
|
| Neutral Neutral |
|---|
● Hiring Shelly de Killer - 16
● Explaining his job to Edgeworth - 3rd
|
| Neutral Trivial |
|---|
● Training Regina's animals behind her back - 14
|
| Significant Negative |
|---|
● Nearly freezing to death - 15
● Losing his memories - 2nd, day 93
● His last words to Knightley
✔ Being defeated by Edgeworth
|
| Neutral Negative |
|---|
● Being interrogated by Patty Roland - 11
● "Curse you, Knightley! Why must you continue to interfere?" - 25
|
| Trivial Negative |
|---|
● Not being able to sleep at night out of fear (as a child) - 20
● Not being able to sleep at night out of fear (as an adult) - 6th
|
| Skills |
|---|
● Animal training (read: Disney Princessing): STARTER
● Mimicking voices
● Chess
● Making balloon animals
|
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
murimurimuri) wrote2024-08-08 12:31 pm
Memory 1: Performing in the circus show
The Berry Big Circus performs a special animal show, in which Keyes, in his clown outfit, plays a monkey trying to break up the forbidden love between
AstiqueDali* the Asian elephant and Regent the tiger, presumably to gain the elephant love for himself. At the end of the show he is "blown away" by Dali (yanked offstage via a rope mechanism hooked up to a well behind the stage).His name isn't mentioned here; he's just referred to as the "naughty monkey."
Also of note is the fact that this show is being performed inside a prison courtyard, for the inmates, most of whom have animals of their own with them.
* The fantranslators didn't remember the elephant had a name (Dali) and renamed it (Astique). I forgot, too... Nobody wants to replay Turnabout Big Top...
Memory 2: Losing his memories
Through all this, he has the powerful sense that he needs to go eat some sweets that his father has made; not because they're tasty, but because something bad will happen if he doesn't. But it doesn't do him a whole lot of good while he's bedridden and can't remember his father's name or face.
Memory 3: Explaining his job to Edgeworth
Simon is being visited by his lawyer (and assistants, who are doing all of the actual work) while under arrest for the murder of his best friend, a man named Knightley. Confonted about lying about his job, he confesses that he's an apprentice animal trainer for the Berry Big Circus. He downplays his role in the animal show, and then tells Edgeworth that he sneaked in to see his friend in the detention block. He also talks about how he lost his father, his only family, in childhood, and that Knightley has been the only friend he's really had since.
Memory 4: Warning Dogen that his life is in danger
Little Simon rushes to tell the blind assassin what he heard. He ushers Dogen into hiding and sets a fire to erase their tracks and distract Dogen's enemies.
Memory 5: Kidnapping Kay Faraday
Memory 6: Not being able to sleep at night out of fear (as an adult)
Simon ignores Money's complaints at being woken up and goes back to bed, where he continues to clutch his switchblade and not sleep.
Memory 7: Kidnapping John Marsh
● Simon waits until a young actor exits the set of the movie he works on, then chloroforms him and dumps him in a box, which he puts out for the garbage collectors to pick up
● He heads to work and does his practice with Regina as usual
● He talks Regina into coming with him to to the courthouse to watch trial of the murder that he had formerly been accused of, only to discover that the prosecutor and key evidence are missing. At some point along the way he also discovers that someone else had claimed to kidnap the boy via the bug he planted on Kay Faraday.
● He and Regina promise to help find the missing Sebastian, and they go out in search. He convinces Regina that they should check the Sunshine Coliseum, since there's a big event going on there.
● Once they get there, however, he feigns social anxiety because of the large crowd and sneaks off to the nearby garbage dump, picking up the box with the boy in it and delivering it to a refrigerated warehouse rented by the Berry Big Circus.
● While dropping the boy off, he calls up Edgeworth to make sure he knows that Blaise's men had kidnapped Sebastian, not John. He can't resist bragging about his other crimes — namely, "ordering" Blaise to commit murder and kidnapping Kay.
● Simon's name is said about a thousand times so I gueeeess he can have it back.
Just about every part of this memory (minus the Sebastian shenanigans, which are a mild annoyance at worst) is fun and exciting and fulfilling for him.
Memory 8 - bah humbug
Memory 9 - Eating Dad's sweets (fuzzy due to memory loss)
What he learns: He still hates sweets... except these ones.
Memory 10 - Plotting a (fake) presidential assassination
Horace is mostly talking about his job. He's employed as a bodyguard for the President of Zheng Fa (someone whom Simon feels intense hatred for, though he takes very special care not to show it), and is working on a fake assassination plot in order to try and boost the President's floundering image. His supervisor, a guy named Rooke (whom Horace feels intense hatred for and makes no secret of it whatsoever), won't go along with it, so he's extremely invested in this plan, viewing this as a promotion opportunity.
As they play, Horace works out the details of his plan, using Simon as a sounding board... or rather, Simon subtly feeds him ideas and makes a plan for him while letting him think he's doing it all himself. He even makes sure that Horace has a convenient opportunity to kill that boss he hates, if he so chooses. He's completely confident that he'll at least try.
The chess game is close and Horace eventually wins, but Simon is the real winner here. He never breaks character even once, playing the sympathetic, helpful friend the whole way through with Horace suspecting nothing. Internally his view on Horace is cynical at best, and he gets a bit of a sadistic thrill from helping to set up this plan... a plan that he personally intends to ruin.
What he learned:
- Goddamn he had a lot of enemies
- And for whatever reason, his own best friend was one of them
- Horace is a hot-headed idiot... but he's not half bad at chess
Memory 11 - Being interrogated by Patty Roland
He's terrified of her — she's scary when she's angry — but he denies everything and eventually she gives up for the night and sends him to bed. He's clamming up not just because he fears she'll kill him once he's admitted to the truth, but also because he's not going to rat out Mr. Dogen, nowaynowaynoway
What he learned:
● This isn't his first memory of Patty Roland, but he knows her a lot better now. She's younger than that picture in this memory, but probably still had some dumb pet with her. (I assume that's where he gets it from)
● Yet more confirmation that everyone in his life will turn on him at a moment's notice
● NOT MR. DOGEN THOUGH, MR. DOGEN IS STILL THE GREATEST >:|!!!!!!!
● +loyalty (if only just to Dogen)
Memory 12 - The first time he played chess with Knightley
1, 2, 3
Memory 13: Carrying out a presidential assassination
When he gets there, though, he sees two familiar people on the rooftop park. The woman is someone he dislikes, but not strongly or homicidally. The man, however, is the President of Zheng Fa, someone Simon utterly loathes. The woman doesn't see him, but the man does and sends her away. He then pulls out a gun and tries to shoot Simon down.
So on one hand, that's naturally frightening, but on the other, sheer coincidence has delivered him someone he has been unsuccessfully trying to have assassinated on a silver platter, shaking and terrified, with no bodyguards and no witnesses. Simon masterfully steers his balloon directly on top of the guy, crushing him to death, and it's a total rush. It's fun and satisfying and his adrenaline is pumping and this may well be the best thing that has ever happened to him.
He drops the girl off in accordance with his original plan (I can't remember if he puts her on the roof or down the secret hatch on the roof; Ace Attorney cases can get a little convoluted at times, okay), then loads up the body in his balloon. He's not sure what to do with it yet, but eh, he'll toss it in the freezer and figure it out later. And hey, a free gun! That would be icing on the cake if he liked icing or cake.
What he learned:
● Killing people you hate, while not something he can see himself engaging in regularly, is a thoroughly fulfilling and enjoyable activity
● This event is closely connected to some other memories he's already gotten back, and it puts some pieces together re: his crime spree
● He's pretty sure he saved the woman's life by showing up when he did, and he's glad for that insofar as her body might have been a complication in the schemes he's been juggling. But he has no strong feelings on this subject, other than perhaps more fuel for him to view his actions as justified or even righteous.
● Mind you, he wouldn't feel a shred of guilt either way. There's no doubt in his mind that he squashed a scumbag who fully deserved it.
Memory 14: Training Regina's animals behind her back
Memory 15: Nearly freezing to death
It's Christmas Eve, there's a blizzard going on, and a tiny Simon needs to get to his father, who needs his help. This is the most important thing in the entire world. But he's overpowered by another boy and forced into the backseat of a car, his arms and legs bound. He begs to be let go, but the other boy just cries and apologies, saying that he had no choice; his father ordered him to do this, and he's too scary to defy.
Simon doesn't care about that. He feels completely, utterly betrayed. This was supposed to be his best friend.
They wait there for Horace's father to come for them, but it only gets colder and colder, and by the time Horace agrees that they can't stay there any longer, the door of the car is frozen shut and they can't leave. So they keep on waiting. Both boys are semi-conscious and severely hypothermic by the time they hear the bell and see the big, black dog in the window, but Simon clearly remembers the face of the man who forced open the door and pulls him out. He's not named here, but he's recognizable from some of Simon's other memories: Mr. Dogen.
Memory 16: Hiring Shelly de Killer
But of course Simon doesn't trust him. That's just stupid. People have been trying to kill him for years over the secret he knows about Zheng Fa's president, and the last thing he needs is some hired gun selling it to a higher bidder. But despite his serious doubts De Killer and his trust-based business model, he decides to go through with the hit. So he fudges some details and leaves out others, in particular not letting him know that a) the president is a phony, b) there's a plot for a fake assassination going on as well, and c) his best friend just happens to be one of the president's bodyguards.
It's not like any of that is relevant, right? He wants a guy dead and he's paying good money to have him made dead. Sheesh, just shut up and go kill him already.
Memory 17: Being saved by Dogen
Simon's not doing well in this memory; he's emotionally devastated and has been physically roughed up. And that assassin from his last memory, the one that he thought he was sooo much smarter than? Yeah, he shows up and he's pretty pissed about being used.
De Killer has a knife to his throat before he can pull his gun. Just as he's lamely trying to claim he doesn't have one, Dogen jumps in, wearing his prison uniform and brandishing a chisel. The old man politely asks for Simon to be spared and sent to prison for punishment instead, stating that after they'd saved each others' lives, he'd grown fond of him. De Killer decides to honor his request and backs off.
Dogen then thanks Edgeworth for putting Simon in is place and declares he'll be going back to his cell now. But before he can leave, he's confronted by a young boy whose father he murdered (recognizable as the one Simon kidnapped in an earlier memory). So Dogen gives the kid a knife and offers to let him slit his throat in revenge.
Depite the fact that Dogen saved his life not even one minute ago, Simon states his life thesis here: "Revenge is good, really good. All your pain and suffering slips away. Everything becomes numb and you'll feel nothing." But the boy doesn't do it, instead giving a speech about how it's not his right to punish criminals, and that's what the law is for, blah blah blah.
So Dogen tells Simon it's time to go. Simon asks to where and he replies, "Prison, the place that will be our home."
After that, Simon gives himself up without any further trouble.
Memory 19 - Meeting Miles Edgeworth
Simon is taken out of a holding cell in the Detention Center and escorted (practically dragged, loudly protesting the whole way) to a visiting room to meet a prosecutor, which has him pretty freaked out. He plays up that fear ridiculously in the hopes of getting out of that meeting, but ends up talking to him anyway... or rather, pretending to be too scared to speak to him and talking to his teen girl assistant instead. (Why should he have to deal with some stuffy asshole prosecutor?)
He lies about his occupation, saying he's a "normal office worker," but admits that he and Knightley were friends and that he came to bring Knightley his chess board two days ago - after all, the police already know both of those facts. (It's worth noting that while he calls Knightley "Horace" to his face, he uses "Knightley" when talking to others). He pretends he doesn't know why he was arrested and as it becomes apparent that Edgeworth is buying his act, Simon "warms up" to him.
He thinks this Edgeworth guy might be useful, and he does his best to strike an emotional chord with him. Still, he's under a lot of stress and doesn't feel like dealing with any of this.
Memory 20 - Not being able to sleep at night out of fear (as a child)
Memory 21 - The arrest of Blaise Debeste
The video is really long (like 50 mins) and almost the whole thing is relevant, so I don't have time to watch it right now and summarize the case facts, but the important parts are:
● Simon isn't on the scene! He's listening in via a bug that he planted. He's probably chilling in his room back at the circus at this time.
● The bulk of the investigation here is Miles Edgeworth proving that Blaise Debeste committed the murder of Jill Crane.
● Blaise Debeste is a really horrible person; in addition to the murder, he recently commited kidnapping and blackmail. He's corrupt at his job and bullies his son. It's implied he's also murdered many others, including his own wife.
● Judge Courtney is suspicious about the letters and Kay Faraday being planted on the scene, but it's passed off as something Blaise did to try to save his own skin. It wasn't though. It was Simon. :3ccc
● Simon HAAAATES this guy and every second of this is just pure popcorn.gif and steadily-increasing joy as Edgeworth destroys him with logic.
Memory 22 - Being confronted by Edgeworth
Edgeworth and the gang show up while he's rehearsing, grills him about his usage of the hot air balloon, and accuses him of that kidnapping he did. He tries to play dumb and appeal to their emotions, but Edgeworth is having none of his bullshit and indites him. He gives up on playing innocent and switches to attack mode.
The most important part is his rad theme music and this animation though:
Look how cute Money is, micro-managing the other animals.
Memory 23 - Running away from the orphanage
It's snowing, but that's fine; it'll cover his tracks. He slips into the night and never looks back.
Memory 24 - Last words to Knightley
At this point he's a little giddy, just bursting with pride over this plan. Of all his schemes, this is the most intimate and intricate; none of the others would ever know who engineered their downfall, but Horace would. He'd learn what it feels like to be betrayed and to be bullied by Patricia Roland. Once Roland sees that chisel, there's no way she won't try to kill him; the only possible outcomes for Horace will be to die or to kill her, and either way he's out of Simon's hair forever.
Simon grabs some circus equipment to drag along behind him, thinking he got lost coming back from the storeroom if he's caught, and sneaks into an off-limits part of the prison to visit Horace. Horace is gloomy about his upcoming trial, but Simon cheers him up with the chess set and by telling him about the prison shows that he and Regina perform once a month.
(The enthusiasm is a little nauseating. Simon tries to convince himself it's because a grown man is excited for the circus, and not that Horace is excited to have him around.)
(Honestly, Horace's happiness about this is starting to kill the mood.)
(That's a really good line. An ironic 10/10. That should make Simon feel awesome. It really should.)
(That's right. He needs to play his next move, too.)
(There. The last piece that will set everything in motion. It's not a gun, but he knows he can count on that trigger-happy moron to brandish a contraband weapon around and get caught with it.)
(Simon doesn't get it. This is supposed to be his moment of triumph, but the longer he stands there, the more he starts to doubt himself. Does he really need to get rid of Horace? He's not a threat, and even if their friendship isn't real it's sort of... nice, to pretend to care about somebody, and to be pretend that you're cared about in return.)
(He didn't mean to say anything of the sort, but it just slipped out.)
(It's getting hard to keep a straight face, too. What the hell has gotten into him?)
There's a screencap or two missing here, just Horace asking him what he's muttering about and Simon being all, NOTHIN' 8U. Because in the end, the facts are the facts. Horace betrayed him and ruined his life. Because of the man in that cell, he'll never see his father again. Horace is the son of a murderer; it's only fitting that he should die, too.
(That's right. Rip off the bandaid. It stings a little now, but it'll feel much better once it's all over.)
Memory 25 - "Curse you, Knightley! Why must you continue to interfere?"
Edgeworth is trying to connect him as the middleman between Knightley and Dogen's correspondence chess game, which he smugly denies until Regina shows up with a delayed letter from Knightley that proves it.