One nice day in Japanifornia, Manfred Von Karma decides that the only way to get proper revenge on the lawyers who bested him is to form a Omniscient Council of Vagueness, so the combined evil of the members will rain misfortune upon Phoenix Wright, (former) Ace Attorney and friends. Of course, the plan fails and he ends up with a Not-So-Omniscient Council of Bickering instead, their only achievements in weeks being to not kill each other (barely). After a severe strain of hijinks, caused by such sources as a flamewar between Dahlia Hawthorne and Kristoph Gavin, Matt Engarde making imaginary friends with Wesker, and an uprising Yaoi-movement among the female members, the group finally is lucky enough to capture Trucy Wright. The victory doesn't last long, however; Trucy escapes after causing some havoc, using her gathered knowledge to form her own group to counter the "Lawbreakers": The "Anything Society". A fierce war between the two fractions soon ensues.
And this is where our actual story begins...
Imagine a dedicated Ace Attorney fan sitting down and deciding to write a decent fanfiction about comedy but also character exploration, while staying fairly close to the source-canon. You got that? Good. Now imagine fifty fans doing this at once. Together.
Anything Agency Vs Lawbreakers RP is an Ace Attorney themed Role-Playing Game, which originated on the backup Forums of Court-Records.net, the most popular community in the fandom. Starting out as a blatant (and admitted) rip-off of "Marik's Evil Council Of Doom", heavily reliant on slapstick humor and other tropes related to the Not-So-Omniscient Council of Bickering, the roleplay was subjected to a severe Cerebus Syndrome after the rival Society was introduced and changed to feature a comparably steady, drama-based plot, somewhat reminiscent of shonen anime. Character exploration and development have become the norm for most of the more engaged players. The RP stays surprisingly close to the spirit of the Ace Attorney series, except for the places where it goes really insane.
Due to the vastly different sources of input, Mood Whiplash can quickly ensure at any given time in the game, as comedic and dramatic moments often quickly alternate. Inner Conflict, Doubts, Traumas and Suppressed Fears make up a good portion of the plot. The fact that one of the top 10 most active players also just so happens to be the author of a certain fanfic should tell you enough about what kind of story you're about to encounter.
The roleplay can be found here
. In 2013 it received a spin-off in Alternate Attorney, which can be found here.
Anything Agency Vs Lawbreakers RP contains examples of:
- Action Commands: Larry and Lance fought like they were in a video game. A+B+C Ha Cha Cha!
- Almighty Mom: Lamiroir. So much. It helps that she is among world's most skilled Illusionists, ever since she regained her memory.
- Alternate Universe: In reference to A Complete Turnabout, one of the RPers had Meekins get overtaken by an alternate version of himself after some Plot-car hijinks. Said character has since disappeared following The Moneybags Arc, meaning that regular Meekins is back.
- Annoying Younger Sibling: Trucy does have her moments. Most of them are related to either Apollo's hair or his wallet.
- An Arm and a Leg : Ka-Shi Nou accidentally blows his arm off in the fight with Slee Z. Moneybags. He gets better, though.
- Ascended Extra: Characters like Ka-Shi Nou who had no role in the original games aside from being, well, dead, are on the roster and some of them are even rather active as well.
- Back from the Dead: Pretty much every previously-dead character can be resurrected thanks to Trucy's wish.
- Beneath the Mask: We are given a look into the thoughts of several characters. Most of them are (even) a lot more troubled on the inside than they look on the outside.
- Big Bad: Each arc arguably has one. Arc 0/1 has Manfred Von Karma, Arc 2 has Kristoph, Arc 3 has Yogi, Arc 4 has no-one, although a case could be made for Meekins or Godot and Arc 5 is Slea Z. Moneybags.
- Big Damn Heroes: A couple of times, both during the rescue of Phoenix Wright from the remaining Lawbreakers, as well as when Wright saved Edgeworth from Castle Karma's security system.
- Black Comedy: Dahlia mentioned at one point that she lives on a diet consisting of Orphan Souls. It is yet unknown whether she was joking or serious about this.
- Brainwashed: The Lawbreakers manipulate Melissa into using her powers to do this to Trucy and Edgeworth.
- Break the Cutie: That's what happens when you let the author of A Complete Turnabout get her hands on a Pollyanna like Trucy Wright. Moneybags succeeded in breaking her by brutally torturing her in several methods. So broken was she that she went into a coma.
- Broken Ace: Miles Edgeworth after he fails to shoot Kristoph in order to save Gregory, and gets shot by Kristoph instead.
- Broken Pedestal: Franziska (finally) realizes what a cruel, heartless monster her father is.
- The Cameo: Matt Engarde has Wesker for an Imaginary Friend and Hickfield Clinic now seems to be populated by characters from Trauma Center and the cast of Scrubs, and Ka-Shi Nou has a large supply of headcrabs.
- Cerebus Syndrome: Around the time the Anything society got formed, the story became a lot more serious.
- Cessation of Existence: This is how Dahlia meets her end... Or so she thinks.
- The Chessmaster: Subverted with Alternate!Meekins as he believed he was one of these, though he was always outmatched at every turn, which resulted in his defeat and eventual disappearance.
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: The Lawbreakers can't seem to stop backstabbing each other, or at the very least refrain from insulting each other at every given opportunity, strong examples being Joe Darke and the AU Mike Meekins.
- Continuity Porn: Pearl Fey's been looking into the minds of other characters, and references are made to actions that happened a while back in the RP, including actions that haven't happened at all.
- Convenient Coma: Godot slips into one after Taking the Bullet for Mia.
- Crack Pairing: In-universe. A rumor somehow got started that Trucy Wright was in love with Kristoph Gavin. The characters reactions upon hearing of it range from being mildly grossed out to destroying the nearest Gavinners CD they can find.
- Cute and Psycho: Averted. Since the characters already all know each other, there is no use for the villainous girls to play nice, and so characters like April May or Dahlia Hawthorne only use their cutesy smiley and Disney Creatures of the Farce in order to make fun of others or play around.
- Darker and Edgier: This is an RP where Gumshoe of all characters is willing to outright shoot Lawbreakers without a second thought. Weakly justified by a hostage situation that went wrong for Gumshoe. Generally, every character's gone through at least one totally demoralizing experience either pre-RP or during the RP.
- Demoted to Extra: Several characters, most obviously Maya and Kay, don't get as much screen time or development as they would have gotten in the game. Especially noticeable in Maya's case, since even when she should technically be close by, Pearl still gets most or even all of the screen time. Has to do with the fact that their RPers live in different timezones than the RPers who play Phoenix and Edgeworth respectively.
- The Dog Was the Mastermind: Not exactly kept a secret, but it was Polly who was the brains of the plot to assassinate Mia.
- Drunken Master: J. Udge is probably this, given his tendency to fly off and drink at any bar he can find, and then proceeding to do something ranging from sinking a country into the ocean or traveling into the future for a vital device that isn't ready yet.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Reading about the Lawbreaker's grand plot to win Phoenix a free holiday is strange even when compared to the more absurd story lines that took place after Cerebus Syndrome kicked in.
- Easy Amnesia: No, Apollo, hitting your head on the next wall in order to establish a psychic connection to Trucy was not one of your best ideas.
- Even Evil Has Standards:
- Ka-Shi Nou states this repeatedly, despite the fact he tends to burn down orphanages.
- Moneybags makes mention of having them, but from what he's mentioned, they're very, very twisted.
- Eye Scream: The Judge stabbed a Plot Co. Secretary through the eye with a crowbar.
- Face–Heel Turn: Godot is thrown out of the Anything Agency for kidnapping and torturing Dahlia, and eventually arrests Apollo with the intention of prosecuting him.
- First-Person Smartass: Wright, Apollo, and Edgeworth have their moments where they snark to themselves, but strangely, Gumshoe also seems to have joined in on the act.
- Frothy Mugs of Water:
- Phoenix regularly drowns his sorrows in "Grape Juice". This even seems to be what enables him to stay impossibly cool while being tortured horrifyingly in the evil lair.
- Averted with The Judge, who heavily and explicitly drinks alcohol.
- Ghost in the Machine: Phoenix, Klavier, Kay, and especially Trucy have had moments in which they were basically talking to themselves in their mind.
- Heel–Face Turn:
- Calisto Yew eventually joins the Anything Agency and even adopts Machi Tobaye.
- Haugh Bludd helps the heroes out during the final battle of the Moneybags arc.
- Imaginary Friend: Wesker to Matt Engarde. Also, Trucy recently built up a whole Imaginary Universe for herself in her Dream Sequences, populated by imaginary versions of her friends and family - and by that we mean that there are fifteen Apollos and at very least three Phoenixes running around there.
- Important Haircut: The chapter where Trucy secretly gives her Daddy a shave while he's sleeping is immediately succeeded by him putting on his old Lawyer's suit and becoming a more serious person again.
- Knight in Sour Armor: While Phoenix gradually warms up and finally casts his armor off almost completely over the course of the RP, poor Detective Gumshoe apparently got three whole layers of it somewhere between T&T and this.
- Knight Templar Big Brother: Apollo would ram his head into a wall in order to make sure Trucy's safe. In fact, he did.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: Miles Edgeworth has his memories erased by Melissa.
- Love Triangle: Maggey loves both Gumshoe and Dustin, and they both love her back (making this a type 7). A platonic version of this would be Trucy with Phoenix and Zak.
- Luke, I Am Your Father: Thalassa/Lamiroir towards Trucy and Apollo.
- MacGuffin: Quite literally called that. Apparently the source of all plot, and from where Moneybags was spawned from. It is also responsible for the resurrection of every single dead character in the series.
- Made of Evil: Slee Z. Moneybags is revealed as being pure, sentient plot during the attempted rescue of Trucy. It is unknown how this happened.
- Makeover Montage: Invoked with Trucy trying to play Makeover-Fairy for a sleeping Phoenix, but turns into a disaster: Turns out Nick's hair is resistant to brushing, combing and, to some degree, even shaving. Phoenix finally is forced to finish the half-done makeover himself once he wakes up. Oh, and Trucy now owes Edgeworth a new comb.
- No Fourth Wall: Characters break the fourth wall so often that at this point the fourth wall literally jumped off a cliff. Typically lampshaded by having the fourth wall brutalized shortly after the break was made.
- Noodle Incident: Udge fought a Zombie Apocalypse on the moon. He was also involved in something to do with Oatmeal.
- Older Than They Look: Due to a lack of Apollo Justice Sprites for them, half of the characters seem to have just stopped aging in 2019. Averted in some cases, such as with Pearl Fey and Cody Hackins, whose sprites have been modified to look older.
- Only Sane Man: Gumshoe seems to be the only character that questions the logic of certain events, such as Castle Karma being able to fly. Eventually he just gave up on it.
- Plot Device: There is literally a kind of technology called "Plot", which can alter and change reality in any way the RPers wish. It started with the Running Gag of the "Plot-Car" and has since extended to Planes, Buses, Bikes, Elevators, Carpets, Gavels, Wheelchairs, and Air Conditioning.
- Poor Communication Kills: Trucy and Kay towards each other. Almost all of their conversations end with Kay running in terror and Trucy facepalming at how the dialogue progressed.
- Put on a Bus: When the cameos were ordered to be removed, The Daleks almost immediately went into space, "never to be seen again outside of a possible cameo after the RP ends".
- Real Life Writes the Plot: Due to the untimely deaths of their RPers, Engarde, Wellington, Iris, and Lauren were written out.
- Refuge in Audacity: Ka-Shi Nou frequently gouges people's heart's out... WITH A SPOON!
- Running Gag:
- Originally a joke was made that every vehicle has three speeds: Stop, Fast, and Speed of Plot. Now it has expanded to nearly every vehicle out there running on the power of plot to explain away people moving too fast to make sense.
- A more recent one: "Trucy Wright has a crush on Kristoph Gavin. Pass it on."
- Sharing a Body: Due to messing with Plot Devices, Phoenix and Pearl, as well as Trucy and Maya. Actually Maya seems to be able to jump between the Spirit Realm, Mia's mind and Trucy's mind, but the rest of the cast doesn't realize this.
- Shout-Out: Numerous.
- Portal has been referenced countless times.
- Edgeworth at one point mentions having watched Batman: The Animated Series in his childhood.
- Udge watches X-Men: Evolution, performs Fatalities, and has the middle name of Gordon Freeman.
- Maya toured through Nick's mind, referencing The Legend of Zelda, Super Mario Bros. and Final Fantasy on the way. Including 8-bit and 16-bit sprites.
- Moneybags believes that Some Men Just Want to Watch the World Burn.
- In no particular order, Back to the Future, Scrubs, Trauma Center, Metal Slug, Command and Conquer, Punch-Out!!, Sonny 2, the already mentioned things, Hazama, Perfect Dark Zero, Ghost Trick and a heck of alot of other stuff.
- Split-Personality Takeover: Ron's alter-ego Mask De Masque develops a mind of his own and takes over.
- This Is for Emphasis, Bitch!: "That'll teach you to never mess with Jonathan Gordon Freeman Udge, bitch!"
- Traveling at the Speed of Plot: Originally a joke, and now turned into the various Plot-vehicles to explain away why everyone can travel that fast.
- Too Dumb to Live: Terry Fawles. Justified in that he's been out of society for longer than most of the characters in the RP, so his driving a car into a building because the GPS told him the location was on his left is believable.
- Villainous Rescue: Moneybags, of all people, swoops in and rescues Apollo from being declared the head of the Lawbreakers, while at the same time nailing the actual one. Needless to say, Manfred von Karma was not amused.
- Wise Beyond Their Years: Played with. Pearl Fey often seems to be this, until you remember that she is, technically, 15 years old.
- Yaoi Fangirl: Yew and Franziska, not surprising, considering their RPer.
