App ✧ Smash Academy

[herecomesjustice]

Out-of-Character Information

Name: Kris
Are you over 15?: Physically.
Time Zone: EST
Personal Journal: mikenno
Reliable Method of Contact:
AIM: Ethan of Ares
Plurk: Mikenno
Other characters in the game:
bluestreaker ✧ Sonic the Hedgehog
idowhatilike ✧ Evve (Pokemon)
Anything Else?: Can you tell Carbon to get out of my yard? It's gettin' weird.

In-Character Information

Name: Apollo Justice
Game/Series: Ace Attorney / Gyakuten Saiban
Teacher/Student/Other: Student
Canon Point: Post GS4
Age: 22
Grade Level/Class Taught/Job: Freshman
Dorm or Living Arrangement: Dorm

Personality:

In the Ace Attorney world, it takes a miracle to not be surrounded by the outrageous. Apollo often asks himself: "Why can't I just have a normal _____?" Not in this series, Polly.

Apollo Justice falls into the role of the straight man in his namesake game, often the one with his head more to the ground than in the skies. Though not always quick to try new things - making Apollo out to be a little stiff and sometimes humorless - when it comes to matters of the law from a defense attorney's point of view, count Apollo's perpetual enthusiasm in. His career is where his heart lies, the young attorney ready to leap in so long as it means he can get work doing what he pines to do.

Apollo's current attitude likely stems from his mentor, Kristoph Gavin's, mannerisms. Much like Kristoph himself, Justice takes his career seriously, preferring to rely more on evidence and facts than to twist already bizarre angles and look at situations from outside of the box. Upon meeting Phoenix Wright, the man Apollo has aspired to be like for years, this perspective begins to change. It isn't so much what Wright teaches him when Kristoph falls out of the picture than what Apollo begins to experience for himself.

Apollo's the type of attorney that cares about making sure the right person lands themselves in the pen, even if it means his client. Though he hates to see his case fall to pieces, he’d much rather know a criminal is behind bars than to walk away a winner. His primary focus is getting to the truth and seeing justice be served. (Though seeing his clients walk away free would be preferred. He wants to get paid, after all!)

Apollo isn’t all serious business, though. The young attorney has a sarcastic/dry humor side to him, though he mostly keeps it to himself. When he does joke or even tries to show eloquence, it tends to not go over as well, mostly due to his usual presentation as someone almost austere in manner. (It’s been commented to him several times that no one can tell when he’s joking or not.)

He also has quite the envy streak in him, admitting (to himself) to find his rival, Klavier Gavin, the prosecution, to be “cool” and impressive, and that he wanted to be like that as well. He has an interest in being famous, often wondering when his “fifteen minutes of fame” will be at his fingertips. Despite this, Apollo has performance issues, exampled in the courtroom when he was asked to do a Luminol test on some evidence and grew intensely nervous. This carries over to his defending, where he will get flustered and is unsure of himself, but is determined to push forth regardless. When it comes down to the pinch, Apollo finds a way to break through.

Apollo, though a greenhorn in the courtroom, has high expectations of himself to perfectly stand on his own two feet. He seems disappointed when he’s unable to figure out the answers on his own, tending to believe he hadn’t earned his victories if the truth is handed to him rather than found by his own methods.

Though Apollo has many sober and cynical aspects to his character, he is definitely a caring person. He’s been seen crying over Trucy being safe after a staged kidnapping, as well as when a client who was poisoned survived the ordeal. Without this detail in his personality, Apollo couldn’t be the defense attorney he strives to be, even if his clients are a real pain in the ass to deal with at times, and it’s something he still shares with his idol, whether he realizes it or not.

Overall, Apollo has enough maturity to out-age his new mentor and his adopted daughter combined, perhaps the most responsible member at the Wright Anything Agency these days, but at his very core, he’s passionate, concerned, and determined, and those are qualities all members can harmonize on… Even if Nick acts like a drunk hobo.


Backstory:

Apollo was born to Thalassa Gramarye and an unnamed father (presumably with the surname 'Justice'). Thalassa is the daughter of Magnifi Gramarye, a prolific magician that founded the Gramarye Troupe, adopting two students who took the names Zak and Valant Gramarye. Thalassa had chosen to leave the troupe to marry Apollo's father, a guest performer she had encountered and fallen in love with. A year after Apollo's birth, his father died on stage in an accident and Thalassa returned to the troupe after leaving Apollo in unknown location with one of her gold bracelets to serve as a memento. She would later remarry to Zak Gramarye and bear a half sister to Apollo, Trucy.

[The following is primarily headcanon. Apollo's past is never discussed in any canon documentation, so JOIN ME FOR THIS JOURNEY.]

Thalassa had left Apollo in the safety of the police, remaining anonymous in her sacrifice. A grieving 19-year-old with her destiny pulling her elsewhere, Apollo was cared for in an orphanage before being transferred to a youth home when he was old enough to integrate with the other boys.

Growing up, Apollo always had an inkling for the truth. He was unsure why, but he always knew when someone was lying to him, and it gradually became a focus for him when the situations became insulting and hurtful enough. The truth was important. Justice against fibbers; everything.

Unlike many of the other boys he stayed with, Apollo never spent very long questioning his past or his parents, but when it did arise, he always wanted answers deep within his heart. He only had his bracelet as a clue, but even then, it gave him no leads.

As he grew older and life began to settle reality onto his shoulders, the bracelet's meaning became lost in time and Apollo's uncanny ability became more dormant. Just kicking off junior high life, Apollo had come across some of the most interesting news he had ever seen. Probably the only pre-teen to ever start reading the papers (Aside from the funnies... which he pretty much only reads exclusively anymore) and watching the news, a certain lawyer's name sprang into his life. Phoenix Wright.

Now this guy had the wright idea! No matter how hopeless the case seemed for his client's, Mr. Wright would pull the truth from the depths and expose it to the entire world. This seemingly average guy that could've been anyone of us - anyone just like Apollo - was pulling amazing feats and changing lives with a little creative thinking. He was just like Apollo - going with his gut to reveal it all.

Apollo redirected his entire life to become a defense attorney, working a part-time job through high school, keeping his grades high, and saving enough to survive as a studying lawyer once graduated.

Midway through his secondary education, Apollo had heard some grave news about his idol: a forger.
A fraud.
And what of his other cases? Had he gained those victories through nefarious means as well?
Apollo couldn't believe it. No, much like Phoenix himself, he refused to believe it. If Mr. Wright were his client, he would have the utmost faith in him that he was innocent. Apollo carried on his quest for legal knowledge, unwilling to be deterred by Phoenix Wright's disbarment. He would find the truth in that himself.

His assistance from the youth home left him lacking after he turned 18, so Apollo had plenty of work ahead of him. These experiences left him always wanting to have work and constantly worried about money. He scrambled his way through thick and thin, and came out on top in his studies. (Well, as top as he'd get!) It was time to find a mentor. With Phoenix out of the picture, he would go to the next best man.

Around the time Apollo turned 22, having passed the bar exam and now officially an attorney, he wound up in Kristoph Gavin's office. A friend of Phoenix Wright's and now the best defense attorney in town, Apollo knew he had to take his studies under this man to be the best he could be. He didn't have the best clothes or the #1 slot in his classes, but he knew what was needed of him.

Kristoph (though with numerous issues Holy crap of his own to deal with), found Apollo's determination and attitude impressive. Sure, he didn't look sharp, but he was sharp, and his knowledge was impressive enough to convince Kristoph he could take Apollo under his wing. He'd redress this disheveled kid who came from nothing and make him a presentable attorney he could proudly display as an employee of Gavin Law Offices. Besides... he had to snuff out a certain blue-suited lawyer's methods he could see shining in the fresh lawyer's eyes. It was all about the evidence, Apollo. Never forget that.

And he surely would not. Kristoph's reliance on facts and evidence was grilled into the young attorney as he studied under him, pulling Apollo further away from the methods he had once relied on. Later, when they would find themselves giving their services to Justice's tainted idol, Phoenix Wright himself, that would all come to a shocking change.

And little did Justice know that an unknown visitation from a disgraced lawyer just before that fateful trial would have him recognized as someone important to his history, all thanks to one little gold bracelet...

The remainder of Apollo's (canon) history can be found here.

After the events of Apollo Justice, about a week will have passed when he's biking to work and is forced into a detour route due to road construction. For some odd reason, he can't seem to find his way back into the main roads, and is biking an awfully long time before he winds up going through the woods and to the Academy campus. For someone so perceptive, he certainly didn't think to stop and ask a squirrel for directions, did he? Now that's he arrived, he can't help but feel the need to satiate his curiosity...

Anything Else?:

• Apollo has a fear of heights and disdain for loud music of the Gavinners brand
• As mentioned in his history, Apollo has the 'power' to perceive BIG FAT LIARS. It's an innate ability amplified by using his bracelet made of a special alloy to help him better notice his body's reflexes against the opposing's physical reactions to fibbing. I'll definitely be making a permission's post for this, as Apollo sometimes can't always pick up the more professional of fabricators.

In-Character 1st person sample:

Apollo's DR Thread!

In-Character 3rd person sample:

Apollo knew life was a series of perpetual questions, as being an attorney was all about delving into the unknown and extracting the raw truth from the heart of that world, but even he had to take them one at a time and this Academy was drowning him with question marks.

First and foremost, how did he fail to ever notice this place? Did he take a wrong turn? But he'd been down those same streets every day, tooting along on his bike and heading into "work", if sitting around and dodging Trucy's urges into the magic box was the definition of employment. (He was not about to let a fifteen year old saw him in half!)

Secondly, what kind of institution was this? Smash Academy. Was it like a... cram school? Did it have a pun for a name? Perhaps. He left his bike outside against a bike rack, locking it up and standing before the doors with a tickling feeling against the tips of his fingers. He wondered if his bracelet was reacting to the building, the structure's very existence a lie that tore into his senses.

He felt drawn to investigate it.

I'm an attorney... I shouldn't be investigating.

But if he learned anything from being under the guidance of Phoenix Wright, it was something that proved far more valuable in court than just letting the evidence come to him.

Welp! So be it! Apollo adjusted his vest, smoothed out the sharp strips of hair standing tall against his forehead, and marched with curious determination right into the school.

God help him when he meets the giant Hands.