IC Inbox [Cerealia]

[bewrightback]

"If you're looking for Phoenix Wright, you've called the Wright number! Leave a message after the beep, and I'll get back to you as soon as I can!"

Comments

voice. --> action

[pollygrapher]

I'll be there in a few. [He tells his boss before he can change his mind and bail out.

Apollo pockets the device and then makes his way over to the apartment, knocking on the door when he finds the right number.]

action

[bewrightback]

[When he gets there, the door likely shows some signs of having been forced open. And a voice calls out nonchalantly.]

Door's open!

[And there's Phoenix, sitting in the middle of a barren and an empty room, wearing his casual clothing and looking down at a small Magatama in the palm of his hand.]

[pollygrapher]

[Apollo enters the apartment carefully, and the emptiness of the space makes the whole thing seem sadder.

He eyes the magatama in Phoenix's hand, recognizing the shape as something he's seen on both Iris and Maya separately.] What's that?

[bewrightback]

This? [He shifts slightly to look towards Apollo, now twiddling the Magatama between his fingers.]

Oh, it's just an old trinket. A memento of the Fey clan...

[pollygrapher]

[He squints at the trinket again before surveying the room with a stunned sort of silence.]

So...that's it? When you disappear from this place, everything you own just...disappears with you?

[It's sort of eerie, in a way.]

[bewrightback]

[He then closes his hand and moves to stick it into his pocket.]

Not always, and not everything. Take a look at Athena's menagerie, after all. [I'm pretty sure she's still taking care of the hawk and the robot...]

But most of what stays are just memories. [He flashes a sad smile towards Apollo.] It leaves you wondering if they were ever really here to begin with, right, Apollo?

[pollygrapher]

Her what? [Apollo's brows furrow in confusion. He tries remembering if he saw anything odd in Athena's apartment when he was over...

Then, his frown deepens as Phoenix hits the nail on the head.]

...yeah. I've heard people can come and go without notice. Sometimes the same people appear again, but without their memories.

[bewrightback]

You ever see a hawk or a robot around her place? They belonged to the Blackquills originally.

[He just nods at the rest of Apollo's assessment, but right after the bit about memories, he points right at young Mr. Justice.]

Just like you.

[pollygrapher]

The Blackquills. [No matter how hard he thinks about it, the name just doesn't sound familiar.] She didn't mention them, and you haven't either.

[And that? That makes him stop immediately.]

Just like--you mean I was here before?

[bewrightback]

I guess I haven't. You'll meet them someday, don't you worry.

[Then he frowns.]

I didn't mention that? [Now that I think about, I think I focused more on him not remembering a year's worth of time back home instead...] Sorry, Apollo. But... it's the truth. You were here for a month or so, from the same time as Athena and me. Then one day... you disappeared, just like that. Until you showed up here.

[pollygrapher]

Wait. [Though Apollo's a little miffed that both Trucy and Phoenix didn't tell him this, he's somewhat appeased by Phoenix's apology. There's also something else more important to focus on.]

You're telling me I was from the same point in time as you before? And then when I came back, I...wasn't. [Like someone hit a rewind button.]

[bewrightback]

That's exactly right, Apollo. [He nods.]

Not only did you lose out on a year's worth of memories back home, but you lost some of this world as well.

[He nestles his hands in his pockets.]

The same could happen to Maya one day. Or Pearls, or any of the others who have come and gone from this place.

[pollygrapher]

[Apollo sighs, rubbing at his forehead tiredly.]

Let me guess. CERES doesn't have a solution for this either?

[bewrightback]

I doubt it. They just blame everything on that so-called 'Nexus Code'.

[pollygrapher]

I've heard that term thrown around before. What exactly is it?

[bewrightback]

That's part of CERES's pitch. You know how they say that they restored us from some kind of back-up code of the universe? That's what's called the Nexus Code. So it's at the heart of this whole matter, if it's real.

[He pauses for a moment as he thinks over something he can disclose.]

...Some of us might have visited it once, a few months back. But as with most things related to CERES, it's hard to tell if it was the real deal or not.

[pollygrapher]

[Apollo looks at him sharply.]

You did? What was it like?

[He's beyond the point of lingering on how far fetched this all sounds.]

[bewrightback]

It was this... really weird place. It felt like being in some kind of incomplete computer game?

And... a lot of the people who had disappeared from the colony seemed to be there. But they were all in some sort of stasis, and there was nothing we can do to affect their condition.

[A shadow falls over his face.]

It... it was like you all weren't even alive.

[pollygrapher]

[Apollo isn't sure if Phoenix meant for that to slip out, but he grimaces all the same.]

You said "you all"--I guess it'd make sense that I'd be there if I had disappeared already.

[His pointer finger presses against his forehead as he thinks.] Those people in the Nexus Code...did you see anyone else from home or just the ones who had been here before?

[bewrightback]

[It was a slip alright, and Phoenix frowns at it.]

Only people who had been here before. ...Yes, Apollo. You were there. As was Klavier Gavin, whom I heard had been in this world for a while before I came here.

[He strokes at his chin.]

But there was one odd thing I noticed. Pearls had disappeared from this world shortly before that all unfolded, but... There was no sign of her at all in that space.

[pollygrapher]

Pearls? [While Apollo recognizes the name, it's only because Phoenix has dropped it a few times.]

Is she someone I'm supposed to be meeting in the future, too?

[bewrightback]

Of course you will, Apollo.

[He gives Apollo the most serious poker face.]

She's your daughter.

1/3

[pollygrapher]

[Apollo freezes up immediately, expression twisted.]

2/3

[pollygrapher]

[Okay, okay, wait. There's no way he heard that correctly.]

3/3

[pollygrapher]

[At least, he hopes not.]

Come again?