Work Text:
The ghosts:
Phoenix Wright:
- The timeline is a bit different than in the games: Phoenix became a lawyer first, then he and Dahlia got married, which is where they got the house in the first place.
- Has been dead for 15 years at beginning of story. Knew Maya and defended her on the trial like in the games. Never got disbarred, since he died first.
- Has been aware the whole time that he was dead. As such, he’s the strongest ghost of the house, which allows him to manipulate some objects in the world of the living (such as his pen) and get a projection in the channeling rooms.
- He was poisoned, and per his request prior to his death, is buried on the grounds of the mansion.
- After Nick’s death Dahlia fled but was caught and jailed on other charges. Nick’s murder could never be tied to her even if it was suspected she was behind his untimely death.
- He can’t move on for three reasons: his murderer still lives, Trucy is still quite young and both Apollo and Athena are still unaware they are dead, and he doesn’t want to leave them all alone.
- Mia isn’t actually dead! After the attack she fell in a coma, so Maya was tried for attempted homicide, which is still pretty bad. Mia woke up after the end of the trial and is doing well.
- He plays the piano in the morning to wake up the inhabitants of the house, both living and dead.
Apollo Justice:
- Second owner of the house, was only supposed to stay a little while because the house was supposed to get sold, around ten years prior to the story
- Everything was going pretty fine and he enjoyed the calm and quiet
- There is a large dent in his bracelet, which indirectly misled him into thinking he was still alive. During an outing in the nearby village, he was attacked and stabbed multiple times, but the first hit was partially blocked by the bracelet, which is how it got dented. The initial shock sent him to the ground, where he hit his head and passed out. He died of blood loss, and his body was only found the following morning by townsfolk.
- After his death he “woke up” in his bed back at the mansion, and thought he just forgot he got back home. He is buried in the town’s cemetery.
- He met Nick and Trucy the same day, and when they realized that he had to be the one to understand he was dead, they pretended they had purchased the house, and offered for him to stay as they claimed they needed help to manage the whole estate.
- He can be seen in mirrors or very reflective surfaces, and could be talked to as long as someone could hold eye contact with him through those surfaces
- Otherwise doesn’t have his own reflection
- His outfit used to be beige, but was stained red by his blood
Athena Cykes:
- Third owner of the house, originally bought by her mother five years prior, but inherited it and thought it would be nice to retire for a while and sort things out.
- She was already 20yrs or so when the UL incidents happened. Simon still took the brunt, and she was hellbent on proving his innocence. She hoped that her stay at the house would help her clear her mind and work more efficiently to find a way to save him.
- She works at the space center, and while there was infected with a bacteria that was cultivated for survival test under space conditions. By interaction with the outside world, the bacteria slowly developed to be malingered. While the problem was found out at the space center pretty early on and stopped, Athena was only found to be sick when it was far too late. It was not transmissible.
- In her last few days she was delirious, which is why she didn’t really experience the moment of her death. When she woke up after it in her room, Apollo was fussing over her and nursed her back to “health”. Since it took a few days for the shock to wear off, that both of them interpreted to her getting better, neither questioned what the other was doing there, and they’ve rolled with it ever since.
- Her voice can be heard in the corridors when she talks to Trucy and Apollo
- She was super stoked to learn that Simon was acquitted, and for three consecutive evenings she had Edgeworth relate every single detail of the case to her. Strangely, he was happy to oblige.
Other Characters:
Trucy Wright:
- A spirit originally tied to the house. She isn’t a dead person, but is capable of bridging the worlds of the living and the dead through the house on scales that would be impossible for Maya
- By being the one inviting the living into the house/property, she allows them to partially step in the realm of the dead, where the ghosts and the living can interact as if they were all in the normal world
- This only stops when a living person steps off the property, from where they need Trucy to invite them back in for the spell to work again.
- Sees Phoenix as a father and Apollo and Athena as siblings.
- Her age parallels that of the house, which means that she ages almost naturally, even if a bit slower than humans
- She wants what’s best for her loved ones and will be Maya’s first help in finding ways for the ghosts to move on.
Maya Fey:
- Came to the house with Pearl at Edgeworth’s request, originally for some good old exorcism
- Was Nick’s best friend after her trial 15 years back and was away when he died. She only learned about his death when she came back.
- Was understandably very distraught and is the one that made sure Dahlia faced justice with Mia’s help
- Her channeling works quite differently than it does in the games, and is a mix between that and what is seen in the movie: She can invite spirits in a specific room, where, depending on their own power, they will be able to interact in various degrees with the living people in the room
- She invokes Trucy at Nick’s request and asks for her help in granting the living residents passage to the house of the dead and helping the ghosts move on.
Pearl:
- Maya’s assistant and apprentice
- Is quite perceptive of both living and spirit’s state of mind and emotions.
- Is more “sometimes mentioned” than actually here to be honest, mostly serves to enlighten the characters on the truth of other’s stability.
Miles Edgeworth:
- Is the one currently renting the mansion, and who brought both Simon and Klavier in the first place
- He felt that they both needed some time away from usual work, and as neither have family or friends to speak of, he decided to drag them off on vacations with him like the good dad he is
- Officially, it’s to study old case files that are stored in the mansion’s office
- Is also the one that got Simon off death row two years prior
- Out of them two, is the only one that remembers Phoenix from their childhood, and also figures out that spirits slowly lose their memories if left trapped in the world for too long.
- He did go through some evolution: after Maya’s trial, he rekindled his friendship with Phoenix and became friends with Maya, and it is the news of Phoenix’s death that helped him change his ways from the old Von Karma ways
- Phoenix will open up to him about his own experience with death, and how he wishes he had been less foolish and more careful with Dahlia back then
Klavier Gavin:
- His brother was convicted for falsification of evidence and murder, and is currently on death row with the expiration soon to come
- Due to that, Klavier had been very obviously stressed at the office, which manifested in him taking on more work than he could cope with
- Edgeworth put a stop to it by arranging his arguments to get Klavier to come with him to the house in such a way that he couldn’t refuse.
- Still, he brought his guitar, because holidays without campfire songs are never really holidays at all
- He will be the first of the living to have contact with the other inhabitants. As he was organizing some documents in the study, he catches a reflection of Apollo in the mirror, doing the same. Needless to say, their combined screams were heard throughout the whole house.
- He is also the one to convince Edgeworth to get the house exorcized, with Simon’s support, and stubbornly refuses to sleep in the house from then on until Maya and Pearl’s arrival
- During that time, he stays in an inn of the village and snoops around for rumors about the old owners of the house.
- As such, he is also the first to hear about what happened to the dead and where they are buried.
Simon Blackquill:
- Edgeworth’s other protégé, accompanied the other two as a ploy to get Klavier to tag along
- Was rescued from death row by Edgeworth
- Lost contact with Athena five years prior and only meets her again at the house.
- Doesn’t initially believe Klavier when he tells him about seeing a ghost in the study but goes along for the sake of Klavier’s peace of mind and the potential prank opportunities.
- Is understandably quite shocked to discover Athena among the ghostly inhabitants later on.
- Her presence and constant nagging on how the trials went and how he was doing for five years are like a bad bandage on a wound, stopping him from going through a grieving process as Athena is still technically there
- Since Athena is unaware that she’s dead at first, the two of them meeting up again initially brings them both down even if they don’t notice it
- It eventually gets better, don’t worry.
Apollo’s death:
- Over the months of domestic life, he and Klavier have grown close and would spend most of their time hanging out together
- The office is the only room with a large mirror, like enough to reflect the entire room kind of large
- They haven’t been there since the time they saw each other through the mirror
- That time, Apollo was too surprised by Klavier’s image to notice he didn’t have a reflection
- Before that, they were messing with old concert costumes Klavier had brought and were looking for a mirror large enough to take full body pictures
- They get to the study, where the mirror had been covered by Phoenix to try and prevent what’s about to happen
- When they get in Klavier realizes why this wasn’t a good idea and tries to convince Apollo to get back out
- Apollo goes straight for the mirror and uncovers it and turns back to Klavier to ask him to get closer so they can have a better look despite that bad lighting.
- Klavier knew that Apollo hadn’t noticed yet, and tries again to get him out
- But when Apollo turns back to face the mirror and freezes, Klav knows it’s too late.
- Apollo lays a shaky hand on the mirror and says out loud that the mirror must be double tint, tricked or anything, really, to make sense of what’s happening.
- Klavier steps up next to him and puts his hand on Apollo’s, where it shows through and is reflected by the mirror normally
- It is also the first time they’ve touched skin to skin in all the months and its not the most pleasant experience for either of them
- (to Apollo Klavier’s hand is searing hot and feels like it's burning him, and for Klavier Apollo’s hand is so cold it can cause cramps)
- Apollo pulls his hand away violently and starts freaking out a bit
- He first tries to remain calm, asking Klavier what’s going on, and the musician hesitates because he is not supposed to answer, Apollo has to figure it out by himself but it is causing him obvious emotional distress, so Klavier decides to inwardly say “fuck it” to that and tries to explain what has been going on to Apollo
- He talks about the first time they saw each other, how he convinced Edgeworth to get the house checked, Maya and Pearl’s arrival, the séance and their meeting with Phoenix, Trucy’s spell to let them in.
- Apollo is really starting to get it, and asks Klavier to hold his hand, and when he complies sees that his own are see-through
- Apollo tries to deny it all but is starting to understand that he’s dead, and as his memories of his death come back, he’s essentially re-living his death
- He starts coughing and feeling the stab wounds, and bleeding as he falls to the ground and is caught by Klavier
- Now they are both panicked, Apollo because of the pain and Klavier because he can’t do anything to help, he calls for Trucy, Phoenix and Maya, but Apollo can’t cope with the pain for long and suddenly fades
- When Trucy barges in Klavier is crumpled on the ground his jacket and arms covered in quickly fading blood. He hadn’t realized it before but he’s crying, heaving as he tries to explain what happened between choked apologies
- Trucy is crying too and runs to him, and they hug it out as she explains that Apollo got really scared and retreated to the spirit realm, that he should be fine and can come back, but she doesn’t know when
- (honestly I live for their friendship)
- Phoenix comforts them and tells them that Apollo needs some time alone to sort through his memories and cope with his death, and that this process can take long but is necessary
- While Trucy keeps Athena busy elsewhere and unquestioning of Apollo’s absence by telling her he just went to the village to run some errands, Phoenix tells the others about his own experience of dealing and accepting his death
- A week later Apollo still isn’t back
- Klavier gets desperate and, assuming Apollo isn’t coming back, brings flower to his grave in the town cemetery
- Klavier goes back to the study with the intention of covering the mirror again, and Apollo appears again
- He had time to calm down but looks unwell, and asks Klavier why he kept the truth from him
- Klavier explains in more depth the rules Maya had given them on interacting with the spirits, and how he hadn’t noticed the risk with the study until it was too late
- He’s sorry that Apollo had to go through this, and especially for being the one to put him in that situation.