Who's yo mommy? (For nomorepantiesplz and mightiswright)

[everylittlething]

It wasn't often that her daddy used the "really really serious" voice. But that was the voice he used when he called her after school that day and told her he needed to talk to her at home, right away, the moment the bell rang.

Trucy wracked her brain for any reason why he might be so serious. She couldn't think of anything she'd done bad recently, and all her grades were good... so it couldn't be her. Maybe something bad had happened. What, she could hardly imagine.

Even cheerful little Trucy couldn't be very cheerful with a thing like that looming over her, though she did her best, smiling as she came in the door. Apollo was there too, and that really made her wonder what was going on. Maybe something had gone wrong with a case, or a client.

"Hi Daddy," she said, and hung up her school bag by the door. "Is everything okay?"

Comments

[mightiswright]

He told Lamiroir once... that it would be her choice when she wanted to tell Trucy and Apollo about their connection. After all, it wasn't ideal, and it wasn't the right time. Not to mention, he had no illusions about the effects of dropping this bombshell on both of them so soon after that trial. But circumstances had made it impossible for him to keep that promise.

"Everything's fine, Truce," he said from his seat on the couch. Apollo had arrived earlier but Phoenix steadfastly refused to answer any questions until they were both here. And now they were, and it still didn't feel like it was going to be any easier.

"Take a seat. There's something I need to talk to you about. Both of you."

[nomorepantiesplz]

Ever since Mr. Wright had told Apollo that he needed to talk to the both of them, Apollo's been left in a state of nervous suspense. He understood why Trucy had to be there, but having to wait for her to get home from school was a little nerve-wracking, that's all. If Mr. Wright hadn't been so dead serious about the whatever-this-was, Apollo wouldn't have been worried. But this wasn't an attitude he was used to seeing, and that made it worse.

Apollo started to stand when Trucy came through the door, but when Mr. Wright spoke up he settled back into his seat, running a hand over his hair spikes. "Okay, great. We're here, so just what is this about?"

[everylittlething]

Yikes. The tension was so thick in here you could cut it with a knife. Trucy settled down on the couch, looking a whole different girl in her school uniform without her cape or hat on. Uneasiness wasn't a good look for her, either.

"I think I know what it is. Daddy's finally taking us to Gatewaterland!" she said brightly, in an attempt to lighten the mood.

[mightiswright]

That got a faint smile out of Phoenix. "I'm a little fuzzy on the details but after what happened last time, I think they specifically said banned 'for life'."

He was stalling to figure out how to even begin to dive into this tangled mess of truths and untruths. Of course, with both their perceptive eyes on him, it was probably obvious to them too.

[nomorepantiesplz]

"Banned for life?" Apollo repeats it incredulously, looking between the two of them with his eyes narrowed in suspicion. He wouldn't put it past either of them to get kicked out of a theme park, but now he was morbidly curious over exactly how it happened.

"That's a story you can tell later," he decides, shaking his head. "News about a vacation wouldn't be nearly so urgent, right?" ... Unless this was a prank of some kind, but Apollo doubted it. The atmosphere seemed all wrong for that.

[everylittlething]

"It sounds a lot worse than it really was," Trucy assured him. "And I guess they put up some more signage than before so it shouldn't happen to anyone else."

Messing with him? Probably.

"So what is it, Daddy?" She felt better after being assured everything was okay, but still, this was a pretty odd beginning to a conversation. "Is there some big new case we get to work on?"

[mightiswright]

Definitely messing with him.

"Not exactly."

Well, there was never going to be any graceful way to slide into the topic, so Phoenix turned to Apollo. "You know... I never did ask. Where did you get your bracelet from?"

It almost seemed like another non sequitur, like his comment about Gatewaterland.

[nomorepantiesplz]

"Uh..." The question is so unexpected that Apollo can't answer for a moment, mentally scrambling for the right words. What could he say that wouldn't be entirely depressing? It's one of the few good reasons that Apollo rarely bothers to talk about his childhood, and now Mr. Wright had just suddenly put him on the spot.

"I don't know who gave it to me," he starts slowly, looking between the two of them. "I'm a foster kid, and it was left with me when I was really little. There's not much more to say about it."

[everylittlething]

Way to change the subject, Daddy. Trucy glances over at Apollo and then down to his bracelet when it's brought up. It's such a useful little trinket, isn't it? With it, Apollo's perception is better than even hers.

Hearing that it was left with him when he was little makes it even more intriguing. Like a mystery! Some kind of magic clue to his identity, maybe?

She almost enthuses as much, but gets the sense that Apollo might not like his past and his bracelet being made light of like that. So instead she directs it at Phoenix.

"Did you find out where it came from, Daddy?"

[mightiswright]

Phoenix doesn't look surprised by Apollo's answer. Not that he hasn't made practically a job of keeping a poker face, but this isn't so much that as the look of someone who got pretty much what he was expecting.

Foster system, huh... It's not really his place to judge the sometimes questionable decisions made by certain (or all, frankly) members of Troupe Gramarye. But all the same, it really is amazing Apollo turned out the way he did. He's a good kid, through and through. A little too earnest at times, which is only going to make all of this a lot harder.

"Something like that," he says slowly. "Apollo, you probably don't know this, and Trucy... you were probably too young to remember. But that bracelet is actually one of a pair."

[nomorepantiesplz]

"A pair," Apollo repeats, with complete disbelief. Well sure, that was possible, but Apollo had never stopped to think about how many copies of his bracelet might be out there. And why would he? It wasn't like it was the kind of jewelry you could walk into a store and buy. Especially not with how much it helped his perception to work.

"... How did you find that out, Mr. Wright?" Apollo's calm enough for now, but his posture is getting a little more tense, his mind racing with uncomfortable thoughts. Like, did Mr. Wright go and investigate this on his own, without even telling him? And how was Trucy involved?

[everylittlething]

"A pair!" Trucy latches onto that, suddenly all abuzz with ideas of secrets and long-lost so-and-sos. "Maybe like some kind of friendship bracelet. Maybe the other one belongs to your family, Polly."

Well. Wait a minute. She drifts off in thought.

"Wait. Why would I remember it?" she asks. "I don't have a bracelet."

[mightiswright]

"That's right... you don't," Phoenix says with a nod. "... But your mother does."

He remembers the first time he saw that picture of Thalassa Gramarye. He'd thought nothing of it at the time, but it wasn't until the day he met Apollo for the first time that the pieces finally started to come together. And then Zak had confirmed it for him, right before his unfortunate death.

"She has the same 'power' that you do, and she had a pair of bracelets to help her 'see'. One of which you're wearing right now, Apollo."

[nomorepantiesplz]

"Her... mother?"

Thalassa Gramarye. Apollo had first heard the name in the course of their final trial against Kristoph, and that meant he only knew what clinical details had been relevant to the case, and in turn the case that had gotten Mr. Wright disbarred. She died in an accident, and that was the dirty secret that Magnifi Gramarye had held over the heads of the rest of the troupe. Put that way they were clear-cut facts, and back then Apollo had little interest in it beyond what it meant for Trucy, and for the case.

Now, Apollo is looking at Phoenix like he's grown two heads, struggling through his shock to even be able to form words. "This is her bracelet? You're sure... this isn't a mistake?"

It is now my turn to suck

[everylittlething]

"Mommy?"

Trucy isn't often to lose the smile on her face, but speaking of her mother is one way to do it. For all the turmoil she's been through because of her biological father, she's at least gotten some manner of closure, even if some of the questions will never be answered or never make sense to her. But her mother... she had never gotten much of the way of resolution about what happened to her. Even Uncle Valant and her father didn't know that.

She looks back and forth from the bracelet to Apollo, then back up to Phoenix.

"But... why would Apollo have something of my mother's?" she asks carefully. Though there is... an idea forming in the back of her head. A strange little idea that makes no sense at all... until she thinks about it a little more.