I am OBSESSED with that AU where Miles is a sibling of Mia and Maya,, and all of them are children of Misty and Gregory. So here’s an essay I wrote about it!
Ideas are inspired by by many other comics on here tagged with #mystic miles au and #miles is a fey au. I also grabbed inspiration from this fic, so please check it out! https://archiveofourown.org/works/8724838
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SPOILERS for the Ace Attorney Trilogy ahead, particularly case 3-5!
SO,, Since Iris and Dahlia moved away from Kurain at a young age and are close in age to Phoenix and Miles,, maybe they went to the same channeling school in the city as Miles.
Iris is purple and Dahlia is pink by the way lol
Gregory is a GOOD father so he would send Miles to channeling school since he’s interested in it (and also has powers,, as it turns out. The Fey blood be powerful like that)
And even though Iris and Dahlia’s dad sucks, maybe part of the divorce arrangement for him and Morgan would be that he’d also send them both to channeling school under the guise of them not losing their culture (but Morgan only cares about having a legacy at this point since she wants to put one of her own as the Master of Kurain, ONE of them needs to be able to be a spirit medium).
So they all meet when they’re like 8-10yo,, and Dahlia sucks and would probably bully Miles frequently for being the only boy in the class (since spirit channeling is meant to be passed down through the women in the family. Just for the sake of this au though,, it’s possible for men to inherit the ability, but the amount of times it’s happened in Kurain can be counted on one hand,, so it’s really rare). Dahlia’s projecting hard since at this point she’s def grappling with feeling like a massive failure because of her lack of powers and is taking it out on Miles,, easy target
Iris is feeling it too, but wow she has a friend now to support her! and Miles is like “no you’re so good at other things! You don’t need to be able to channel spirits to have worth, that’s dumb!”
Dahlia totally makes some mess up about Miles having “stolen” her and Iris’ abilities when it turns out Miles can actually channel spirits since “HE’S NOT MEANT TO BE ABLE TO DO THAT” and Iris doesn’t believe it at first,, but when Miles disappears a few weeks later (adopted by Manfred 🤢) she gets hella gaslighted.
Miles also knows like nothing about spirit channeling since he’s a silly city boy who doesn’t live with the Feys in his family,,, so Iris teaches him many of the technical basics when he first starts there 😌 in return they’re often partners for exercises and Miles tries to help her understand the more internal part of them.
Not pictured: Miles consistently ties his kimono the wrong way (right over left is only used when the wearer is dead) because Morgan taught him that “all men in Kurain should tie it that way” - aka she believes Miles should be dead bc her own personal vendetta against Misty + he’s a boy with more powers than her and her children (pre-Pearly) and she took that personally. She didn’t think he’d learn any different since he was moving to the city anyway so who would teach him about that kind of thing? Miles doesn’t learn why she taught him that way until 3-5 and he kinda privately has a moment like “that was on purpose. She wanted me dead. Oh MAN”
I also like to think that Miles’ strong sense of justice rubbed off a little on Iris and stuck with her through adulthood. Maybe she told Phoenix the truth in university and tried to warm him about Dahlia’s plan, but Feenie’s a little too dumb to fully put all the pieces together like that pre-murder. He’s just like “Dollie wdym???? Twin sister? Trying to plot my murder?? You’re so funny ily” and Iris is SOBBING like “Feenie PLEASE it’s been 8 months and I still haven’t gotten her necklace back yet she’s going to kill you TOMORROW” And that makes Phoenix a little less INSANE for Dahlia during the trial making Mia’s life so much easier. He doesn’t eat the necklace bc he kinda knows it’s REALLY important here and he’s gotten other signs that Dahlia’s an awful person. He’s still a bit difficult since he’s still in denial,,, but he’s less of a simp because he WAS warned. Case 3-5 probably also comes to close a little sooner since Iris is less willing to cover for Dahlia like that. She still helps her sister,, but when testifying while facing Phoenix AND Miles she may tell the truth a LOT sooner.
Also when Miles gets adopted by Manfred he can no longer attend channeling school. Misty tried to fight for custody of him when Gregory got clapped but failed since she was under fire because of the DL-6 Spirit Channeling Incident of 2001™️ and she wasn’t seen as a good fit to parent an additional child. Because of this,, Manfred isn’t under obligation to do anything to keep Miles in touch with the Fey side of the family. Miles no longer visits his siblings and Manfred pulls him out of channeling school because “it’s a waste of time,, why do that when you could speedrun becoming a prosecuting attorney?” And although Miles DOES enjoy law,, he also enjoyed spirit channeling. I hc that Manfred lives on one of those big fancy acreages, there’s 100% a waterfall somewhere on his property so Miles would sneak out through his teen years and practice his chants sitting under the flow of water like 4 times a week since that’s the only exercise he remembers from school that he can actually do by himself without a bunch of materials. It’s not proper training since he doesn’t know how to push himself aside from doing it longer each time,, and other exercises are necessary for learning how to control the powers (i say that waterfall exercise is for becoming in tune with the powers and connecting with the spirit world as a whole instead of channeling one person in particular. It’s good for expanding the reach and flexibility of the powers,, but not so much for controlling and restricting them)
This leads to Miles having INSANE spiritual energy and Pearly and Maya can FEEL it when he’s around,, but he sucks at controlling it. He’ll look down the hall in the courthouse to the elevator where his dad got killed and hear screams and see blood. In 3-5 when Dahlia un-possesses Maya in a fit of rage,, she DIVES for Miles and possesses him in a last-ditch attempt to kill Phoenix in pure fury. Miles can’t stop it or control anything that’s happening as Dahlia uses his body to jump over the desk and lunge at Phoenix in an attempt to strangle him,, and it’s only stopped by Phoenix pulling the demon-warding hood from the court record and tying it around Miles’ head. Thankfully it was painfully obvious that Miles wasn’t himself because his appearance and voice changed (Kurain Technique style) - his hair got longer and braided itself to match Dahlia’s,, and his suit jacket suddenly didn’t fit correctly since Dahlia’s much smaller in stature than him. Phoenix attests to this and Miles thankfully gets off scot-free,, but it could’ve easily been another Reunion and Turnabout-type situation with a spirit medium murdering someone while they were channeling someone who was already dead.
Afterwards Maya drags Miles to Hazakura Temple to do the special training courses with her. Miles enjoys it although he hates being imperfect at something (we hate Manfred in this house),, but Maya is very kind and supportive to her older brother 😌
Maya Fey is such a fucking genius concept for a character it makes me insane. at 17 years old she's the sole heir to a prestigious and powerful family of spirit mediums. her parents are gone and her sister is dead and the burden of the fey legacy is hers alone to bear. And so it is her destiny to spend her entire life training rigorously to detach herself from the world in order to hone her powers and reclaim the pride and standing of the Fey clan. and what does she do about it? she becomes the most unapologetically earthly, hedonistic, materialistic creature alive. A girl who is always chasing pleasure, be that in money, in food, in children's tv shows. A girl who loves loudly, who wants loudly, who lives loudly. A girl who in all her strength and kindness is not afraid to be selfish and to take what she wants. And yet underneath all that is something small and sad and scared. She's lonely, and afraid of being left behind. she struggles with self-esteem. she's passively suicidal. and eventually, under enough pressure, she DOES start to crack under the weight of it all because at the end of the day despite everything she is still a teenage girl. I genuinely cannot imagine thinking that Maya Fey is badly written. I think she's one of the most brilliant video game characters of all time.
sometimes plushies make me cry because it’s like. they’re little guys made to be loved. their only purpose is to be held and hugged and loved. we made them because we love making things and we love loving things. and they’re so cute
Years back, I was working at a specialty store, and we got this HUGE crate of plushy toys. They were all insanely cute and squishy. I knew kids would go nuts for them, as it was the first week of December, so parents and grandparents often had kids with them while shopping for furniture, lamps, cooking equipment, lights, etc.
One night, I was working my last hour of my shift covering the Customer Service desk, which meant when I wasn't busy, I was supposed to help clean up around the cash registers, including taking back items people changed their minds about at the checkout. Earlier, I had witnessed a kid carrying thos cute plushy toy. It was a brown and white hedgehog. The kid, at the checkout, saw a remote control car and he told his dad he qanted it. The dad told him, "The plushy or the car- you can't have both" (by the way, I respect boundaries with kids and parents sticking to their guns about it), and the kid picked the car.
So, I'm cleaning up, have less than an hour left of my shift, and I see the little plushy hedgehog. Somehow, he never got put back nor had anyone else seen him and decided to buy him. He was just sitting there, slumped to the side, unattended.
It's Christmas and I'm a sentimental old sap at heart. My brain starts replaying the scene from RUDOLPH where he's on the Island of Misfot Toys, and is told a toy is never truly happy until it is loved. I picked him up and quickly took him back to the bin with the plushies but... It was empty. He was literally the last plushy toy and my boss was about to wheel the bin out. We weren't getting any more toys till November, so that meant any toys left at this point needed to sell or they'd be sent to the dump.
I brought the little hedgehog to the front, figuring someone would see him with the candy, candles, & Christmas brick-a-brack, and fall in love with him. When I finished my shift, I went to ask my manager a question and as I passed the Christmas candle display - there he sat, the sad little slumped over hedgehog plushy. No one had bought him, or even moved him.
My manager, Phillip, saw me and the hedgehog. He asked how the hedgehog got there. I told him how I'd put him there when the bin got sent back, and he was the only plushy left. Philip had kids, I figured he'd probably get sentimental and buy it for his kids. Nope. He shrugged and said he'd send it back to be disposed of.
That night, I came home with a plushy hedgehog in my passenger seat. My mom saw him and just thought he was the cutest little hedgehog and asked what I wanted to do with him. I told her the story, then added I didn't know exactly what I wanted to do with him.
My mom is a child psychiatrist, specializing in children with PTSD and brain damage that results in learning problems/issues with processing their emotions. She asked if she could have the plushy hedgehog (even offered to pay me for him, she didn't expect me to just give him over), so kids could hug him when they were upset in session.
Murphy, the plushy hedgehog that still slumps a little to the left when seated, has been hugged by hundreds of kids. Little girls have held him tight while explaining about bullies, little boys have held him tight while crying over their panic attacks, younger siblings have held him to whisper secrets while elder siblings and parents talk about self-soothing techniques, teenagers have hugged Murphy while talking about the worst day of their lives. Murphy has also been hugged by kids excitedly chatting about a new friend at school, a teen girl excited to be called by her name instead of her dead-name, little kids proudly saying they've mastered their ABCs, and even staff members who just need to come chat over a case they are having trouble with.
Every now and then, my mom brings Murphy home for a weekend. He gets washed (she calls it a Spa Weekend, to her coworkers, all of them laughing), dried, and sits outside with my mom in the sunshine to get aired out, then on Monday, they are back to work. Some kids even just ask to hold Murphy while they talk, no matter their mood or what they want to talk about. They just want to hug Murphy.
So yes. Plushies are made for one purpose. To be hugged and loved. To be a comfort.
i also want to point out we know it tastes the same even after thousands of years b/c archaeologists who discovered two thousand year old honey tasted it. presumably right after they looked at each other and went “what the hell here goes nothing”
No, no no… you identify bone from rock or other substances by touching it to your tongue. If it sticks, it’s bone. The taste itself has nothing to do with it. And most archaeologists won’t lick human bones if they know they’re human.
…and I realize that doesn’t actually do much to prove archaeologists aren’t freaks.
Ok but like. What the fuck is there to do on the internet anymore?
Idk when I was younger, you could just go and go and find exciting new websites full of whatever cool things you wanted to explore. An overabundance of ways to occupy your time online.
Now, it's just... Social media. That's it. Social media and news sites. And I'm tired of social media and I'm tired of the news.
Am I just like completely inept at finding new things or has the internet just fallen apart that much with the problems of SEO and web 3.0 turning everything into a same-site prison?
You're right that the internet is smaller than it used to be, but there's still some cool stuff left in the corners. I'd recommend checking checking out Neocities if you haven't--it's an independent web hosting platform like Geocities of the old web, and there are hundreds of interesting and active pages discoverable both through their search function and through web buttons (links attached to small pictures with the title of a website) within the websites themselves. Here are three examples of web buttons you may find in link pages:
Most Neocities websites have link pages or button collections with anywhere from tens to hundreds of these. Don't be afraid to explore!
If you're looking for something more like a search engine, I can point you towards Marginalia. It's not a particularly smart engine, but it's perfectly usable if you've ever been taught to use search engines back when they were mostly run through keywords instead of full sentence comprehension. There's also an "about" and "tips" section on the front page with more information. The algorithm of Marginalia can be filtered by the user to allow, disallow, or require JavaScript depending on your needs, plus there are filters designed specifically to prioritize web 1.0 sites or mostly text-based ones. It is possible to search for modern websites with it, but it can return websites from just about any decade (since the invention of the web, obviously) so long as they contain the information you're looking for. For example, here are some random interesting sites I've found using Marginalia:
Native Languages of the Americas: Native American Cultures
BASIC HTML COMPETENCY IS THE NEW PUNK FOLK EXPLOSION!
Earthbound Text Labs by Bill Eager
The possibilities for discovery are truly endless.
Now you might want to know about directories. These make browsing for websites easier, but require you to read through and judge which ones to visit, as there aren't algorithms ranking the sites besides the whim of whoever coded the directory. Some of them have themes, others don't. Here are two that I've used:
Yesterlinks Directory
Ichigo Directory
Directories can be harder to come by just by surfing the net, but they aren't impossible to find. Many personal websites have their own directories of interesting sites hidden within them.
Webrings are similar to directories, but are actually more community-based. You have to register your website to be a part of a webring, usually by sending an email to whoever runs it and meeting some kind of entry criteria. For example, my personal website used to be a part of a webring called Sweet Dreams, which was for websites that heavily utilize color palettes and images of cute things, particularly sweets. Webrings will give you access to a widget upon entry that allow visitors and other members to browse between the registered websites in a massive ring, ergo, where the term gets its name. Webrings can have any theme or criteria for entry. If you can make a website about it, you can find a webring for it.
Now, you might be wondering about social media alternatives. I can't offer much, but I can nudge you towards the idea of forums. Here's one I found that could really use some traffic. I also browse a bit on MelonLand forum, which is actually closed right now--it's currently closed on Mondays--but on any other day of the week, you can find a fun community there dedicated to web revival. You can find it through MelonLand's main page. I'd also recommend checking out SpaceHey, which is a MySpace clone that's customizable and easy to use.
I hope this is of some help to you. The internet may feel less magical than it used to be, but that doesn't mean that the spark has completely died out. These types of indie websites need more attention if we ever hope to reverse the damage done to the internet by centralization and corporate interest. People are trying to make the web a cooler place to be, but we're going to have to do the work of finding and interacting with these projects in order to get them off the ground someday.
ALSO you should consider browsing Virtual Pet List and seeing if there are any pet sites you might be interested in playing. There is a whole genre of browser games right under your nose
I'm gonna be honest 'cowboys were a sort of itinerant warrior class common in meiji-era texas' always annoys me a bit because it's a funny post but also No They Weren't. They were an itinerant pastoralist class common in Meiji-era Texas. And indeed the wider western region of post-Risorgimento America
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