#thread: arrowsnsarcasm

[here-comes-the-sun-king]

@arrowsnsarcasm | arsenal

Apollo didn't give much weight to what others thought of him outside of the few who mattered. He read newspaper and magazine articles for the information of how people viewed him and those he cared about so he knew what to expect, not because their thoughts and opinions would upset him.

Have they upset him before? On the basis of sheer goddamn audacity, never hurt feelings.

Kind wasn't the first word he'd think of using to describe himself, in a neutral way of thinking. He knew who he was and what he does can make him be considered a god or a monster.

Thick eyelashes fluttered closed at the question, his hand pulled off the other's shoulder in a peace and quiet only the light breeze could fill.

"Yes", was the only word Apollo replied with.

Silence resumed as memories both clear and fuzzy played out in his mind, echoes of errors and imprints of inevitabilities a familiar specter.

The Sun King had seven graves he could never visit again. Seven graves he made up for by creating a seven candle memorial in one of his apartment balcony's corners. Seven candles with a name painted on each for seven people who would never return from any change in the multiverse.

Amaze's candle dripped crimson wax, akin to the blood of his sins that has stained his invulnerable hands permanently.

Out in the vastness of the multiverse, his old Earth was abandoned of all humanoid life. Whether it was reclaimed by the flora and fauna or destroyed by those who sought to invade it, he cannot answer.

Apollo's previous planet had mountains of people he killed or failed to save before those who remained of his world came here, the inconceivable amount of ichor leaving an invisible trail behind him.

He broke the uncommunicative atmosphere once more to utter, "This is a nice spot to be buried."

[akatarantula]

There's a box 🎁 50/50 chance it will explode with glitter or sex pollen stolen from Poison Ivy in 3...2...

//OOC: Did a coin flip 🙃

Tarantula leaps away from the box the moment she realizes that it's on a countdown. The blast catches her anyway, leaving her coated in a thin layer of...

Pollen.

She fumbles her landing on the rooftop and gasps for breath as her body reacts. Warmth blooms in her gut and races throughout her extremities. Tarantula has heard of this, but it's her first encounter with it. She tries to open her com line, wanting to call someone before she's fully under the effects, and hits her emergency button for good measure.

She doesn't have many people to turn to, in a situation like this...

//OOC: let's make it potentially dark. Open RP. Multiple threads. @arrowsnsarcasm , she'd probably try calling you.

[john-brendan-knowles]

Visit to hell

John had been training harder the past week. Even if he knew he could take on almost anyone, he was still being smart. He was getting his armor on when Roy walked into their bedroom.

Hey babe, I'm almost ready to go. But before we do...

John moved to face him, in one hand a sword appeared, and it was quite similar to the one he had strapped to his side. It had fewer sigils, but the size and shape were the same. In the other, he had a quiver of arrows nothing like Roy had ever seen. Those had a few of the same sigils as the sword, but not as many and where made of the same material.

I'm not supposed to give out weapons like this, but since you're my boyfriend, I'm sure my Uncle Luc and my pops won't mind.

These will keep you safe if I or my brother fail, okay? Just having them will make demons think a few times before trying anything. And all that is if my mark is not good enough deterrent, which it is.

John looked serious when he handed them over, and cupped his cheek softly.

We're going to my home, and even if I love it there, it's dangerous, so promise me you won't ever leave my side or my brother's side. Okay?

(Closed thread with @arrowsnsarcasm and @damietheprideprince )

[here-comes-the-sun-king]

@arrowsnsarcasm | arsenal

Apollo navigated around the grave with precise steps and resumed eye contact, purposeful in his want to avoid stepping on the dirt in front of the headstone.

He approached the younger man in a leisure pace as he placed a hand on a shorter shoulder, movements slow enough to stop if physical contact was unwanted.

Though at six feet seven inches tall, a majority of shoulders were short to him.

With his light touch accepted, he proclaimed in a hush tone, "What you're supposed to do and what you want is yours to decide, unless you choose to share."

He paused to let the words sink in.

Apollo's inhuman blue orbs bore into the other's green ones as he spoke a tad louder, "The only guarantee in loss is that it hurts. Everything else is up to the person who is hurting."

Amaze. Crow Jane. Lamplight. Impetus. Stalker. Jenny Sparks. Jeroen Thornedike.

Their ghost lights and stories attached were carried with him from his old Earth to this one, the baggage from their losses an unregistered carry-on.

[here-comes-the-sun-king]

@arrowsnsarcasm | arsenal

Arsenal.

Apollo recognized the other's appearance from a picture attached to a file named 'Arsenal' on The Carrier's records.

The Engineer since the arrival to this Earth had expanded their database to include files of individuals, both superpowered and non-superpowered.

People without superpowers who fought alongside those with superpowers was a new and intriguing change of pace.

Apollo could very easily tip off that he knew the readhead went by the title of Arsenal, but that would be playing a card he'd only need to put on the table if there was prying eyes in business better left unseen and untouched.

If the other man said nothing, then he would say nothing.

Though he doubted this discussion would be about anything other than loss. Grief had a way in how it lingered in the corners of a person's eyelids and the unsent letters in a nightstand's drawer.

Never to leave yet always to change.

Apollo's long hair danced in the gentle breeze, a small understanding smile upon his lips that had his eyes crinkle up at the corners as he countered, "Whether or not he can hear you, it matters to you."

His kirlian aura halo's golden semiopaque visage flickered with the difference in light as he broke eye contact to turn his head into the wind.

"We have to do whatever we can to keep moving forward, one day at a time", Apollo spoke in a far-off voice as if he was recalling a memory.

The brief waft of cheap English cigarettes that smelled like the bottom of a gas can haunted his nostrils when he manually breathed in and out.

It was a scent he disliked and deeply missed.

[here-comes-the-sun-king]

@arrowsnsarcasm | arsenal

Apollo was no stranger to funerals.

The first funeral he ever attended was a makeshift one he officiated himself for the fallen members of Stormwatch Zero.

It wasn't anything massive, just codenames' spray-painted in yellow on a back alleyway wall of some small town in New Mexico. He remembered how he'd dug out a half-empty bottle of alcohol from the closest dumpster to light it with heat vision into a do-it-yourself candle as he said a few words in rememberance.

Some might call that a molotov cocktail, but it was treated like a candle first.

The fact that Midnighter later threw it at a shitbag government official the two of them had caught intimidating an elderly couple into premature foreclosure was beside the point.

A graveyard was a location he first met when Jenny Sparks died. Her grave was in a remote spot a little outside London, with plenty of benches and trees.

She would've been pleased with it, he thought.

It was the same place they buried The Doctor, too. Jeroen Thornedike hadn't opened up about his past to anyone other than Jenny Sparks, so The Authority figured burying him next to her was the least they could do.

Apollo was up in the sky to catch some rays and burn off extra energy when he'd heard the faint voice of someone in mourning, the pain in the person's tone halting him mid-flight.

It wouldn't hurt to make a pit-stop to make sure the stranger was alright.

With his eyes locked onto the thermal signature of the figure he had been tracking since cloud high, The Sun King descended behind the man who had turned around to exit the graveyard.

He replied to the one-sided conversation in a sincere tone as he softly landed on grassy terrain, "Gone or not, there's never a final date on the calendar when talking to a loved one."

[here-comes-the-sun-king]

@arrowsnsarcasm | arsenal

Apollo wasn't stunned in the slightest to hear that there was a file or two with his name on it. The Justice League and other teams would be bad at their job if they didn't have a cohesive database.

So it's only fair that The Authority kept records of their own.

"Wouldn't say those tattoos are forgettable but I get your point", Apollo bluntly pointed out as his blue orbs stared at the ink that crawled up the other's arms.

Perhaps the only real difference between those with powers and not was the amount of elbow grease needed to accomplish their goals.

Perhaps there was an unfathomable number of differences between superhumans and the humans who fought for a better world, only to become a causality to their aspirations.

Hope.

In Apollo's opinion, to hope and strive for a better world was worth the risk and effort. Could always do with a little more hope out there.

But you can't survive purely off of hope.

A glass half full was still considered a glass half empty and vice versa.

"You tell yourself that everyone primarily watches people with powers when it's really the opposite. It's easier to take down a straw house than a brick one."

[here-comes-the-sun-king]

@arrowsnsarcasm | arsenal

His mouth quirked up to form a wry grin as he flippantly said, "So your dreams include not being Groundhog's Day of the dead. Good to know. Bill Murray wouldn't want to wear that kind of hat to play you in the new movie retelling, I'd wager."

Apollo was truthfully a fan of when a particular man wore his leather helmet. If Midnighter were to wear a hat like that? His husband would want to be mocked.

Or he'd want to tease him. Either way, The Midnighter had a guarantee of him and Jenny needling him.

Apollo could say he was lucky for his second chances in this slightly safer place, but luck had nothing to do with it.

Just gotta buck up and do what's needed, no matter how much it may hurt.

He shook Roy's hand firmly with a grip that denoted held back strength, grin still on his face. His halo brightened and transformed into an orange hue, the breeze's altered direction permitting a brief glimpse of the singular lens flare which encircled his solar crown.

"Apollo. Though I'm sure you already knew that, Roy Harper. Not like I make any effort to have my identity a secret", Apollo introduced himself before he released his hand from the shake.

[john-brendan-knowles]

(New thread)

Home is hell, Roy. This place means nothing. I can go anywhere in seconds.

I'm mostly worried about the things I do, I'm not sure I am safe for Lian.

John wasn't sure he even wanted to bring up the drugs to Roy, but he knew he couldn't be irresponsible about this, not when a kid would be involved.

@arrowsnsarcasm