Shoe is a cat that features in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Justice For All. Some people theorised that there was more to this cat than met the eye. I took this theory one step further. Rumours that I'm reposting this fanfiction merely as an opportunity to show off my Shoe emoticon are partially unfounded .

Title: Meow. (Or how Shoe the cat is the true mastermind of PW)
Author: The Thinker
Rating: PG
Genre: First-person narrative
Status: Completed (depending on feedback)
Summary: The ponderings of Shoe the cat
Note: Based in the PW:JFA (GS2) universe, but I've tried to make it spoiler-free.

One popular concept is that cats have nine lives, and this is true. The problem is that every cat knows this, so they spend life after life getting into danger and to hell with the consequences. This strategy works absolutely great for a while, but then most of them get to their last life and go all senile. After realising their own mortality these pitiful felines lose the will to do anything, for they know that they can never lead the adventurous lives they once took for granted. Even worse are those who never keep track, and pass away still believing they must have at least several more chances, or even that they are immortal.

Ordinary cats waste their lives. But I am by no means ordinary, at least not any more. I live my lives; I live them all at once. In fact, I live other people’s lives too. These humans are so easy to manipulate if you know how. When I first realised this talent I started with small things such as getting cream whenever I so pleased. Soon that got boring, and amazingly so did the many varieties of fish that I had once yearned. As my intellect became sharper, television slowly became duller and duller. It felt like I was losing a friend which had never hitherto let me down, a companion which had led me to give up on attempting to befriend the rest of my kind. Movies and shows were just so formulaic, so predictable. How could I bear to watch the same storyline repackaged again and again. Life turned into shades of greys, the ultimate in mediocrity and tedium.

After spending a week or so feeling sorry for myself, I decided that something would have to be done. If what was available from a store or broadcast through the air was not suitably interesting, then I would have to make my own entertainment. That was when I began to manipulate people for more than just treats. I could get them to do almost anything, and even better I could make them think it was their own idea. I’d always wondered why the other cats liked balls of wool, but I think I understood now. I could weave intricate fantastical stories, and then watch them unwind. But getting people to commit crimes didn’t turn out to be the best bit. Oh no, it seemed that even more exciting was the aftermath. It was delightful to watch them try to wiggle out of it.

Lately I’ve been infatuated with an upstart attorney called Phoenix Wright. However complex I manage to make the plot he follows every twist and turn and somehow gets to the truth in the end. Well, at least to most of the truth. For all his suspicious nature and super-logical mind, I doubt he’ll ever suspect me. I’m nobody special, just little old Shoe. And while these humans continue to be so easily swayed, I’ll continue to play my little games of cat and mouse. Ah, here one of them comes now. This is my cue to stick to the script and play to their perceptions of me. Hmm, what reaction would be most appropriate? Oh yes, I know: "Meow".

...Whadya think?

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Nice! But I think I've read the last sentence in another fan fic.

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Perhaps you remember it from when I originally posted the fic on the old CR forum back in December '06.

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