Arrival broadcast

[neversets]

Who: Apollo + Others
Broadcast: Fleetwide
Action: Marsiva
When: Now? Until shuffle?

Broadcast
[The camera shows a handsome, very built man sleeping in a bed. And it continues to show that for a very long time. Either is started broadcasting very early, or he's doing a very good job of pretending to be asleep when he's not.

When he does move, he sits up carefully, pushing his hair back from his face. He's wearing cargo pants and a plain white t-shirt that seems somehow too... mundane on him.

He gets up after a brief stretch and moves over to the communicator, picking it up and clicking it off without offering a word.]


On ship
[Apollo eventually emerges from his room, a bit somber and subdued. He wanders around in bare feet, moving quietly along the metal hallways. When he finds a window, he leans his hands against it, looking at the distant star at the heart of this system with undisguised longing.]

Comments

[precedented]

[ He cocks his head, a foreign movement. ]

It may not be "good". It may be a waste. But it is your freedom to express, is it not?

[neversets]

I could. But I can't afford to be wasting charge busting things up when I don't know when I'll next have a chance to get some.

It's my freedom to not express it as well. Losing my cool won't achieve anything, and it'd cost me, so I'm not doing it.

Shit.

[ He turns away from the camera, shoving his fingers through his hair. ]

As if it wasn't bad enough to have one parent walk out on her.

[precedented]

You're not dead.

[ A little softer. ] So long as that holds true, you haven't walked away.

[neversets]

No!

[ There's a brief spark of light in his eyes, deep behind his pupil. ]

You walk away without being dead. You turn your back on the people who love you and walk out. Death is forgivable. Abandoning your child isn't.

[precedented]

Walking away also needs to be deliberate. If death is forgivable, then so is this.

[neversets]

She's six. I don't know that she's going to understand that Dad's been kidnapped into space...

[ Yes, he does. And she will. But she still might blame herself for not stopping it happening. ]

Shit. He better fucking come back to look after her. With me not there, he has to be there for her.

[precedented]

[ There's no point in trying to get into the logistics of time and space with a man shaken up so much. So Leto holds his tongue. It seems he wishes to vent. In that time, he simply watches . . .

Is this how a parent behaves? He has faint memories of the past, not his own, of course, but of other lives raised in a familial unit. But he's never witnessed something this visceral. ]

[neversets]

[ Having let that out, Apollo looks to the communicator with a sheepish smile. ]

Sorry. I guess I'm a bit more frustrated about this than I'd like to be.

[precedented]

I do not mind.

[ It was fascinating to watch. ]

[neversets]

Like I say... try not to lose my cool. Doesn't help. Maybe beats freezing up, but I prefer not to do that too.

[precedented]

It's only been a day. Barely a day at that. I doubt anyone will hold it against you.

[neversets]

I might.

[ He won't. He doesn't really hold grudges, even against himself. ]

I'm still going to worry about Jenny.

[precedented]

I believe that is your prerogative as a parent.

[ He assumes. He doesn't sound sure. ]

[neversets]

Damn right it is. I'm all she has, I need to worry about her. Kids aren't great at worrying about themselves.

[precedented]

[ Well. Leto can't deny that. ]

They do have other things on their mind.

[neversets]

Especially Jenny. When can I fly, when can I come on missions with you and Daddy, can I have nanobot blood like Angie, why can't I meet Jenny Sparks...

Kids, huh?

[precedented]

[ He smiles, though it's a little bittersweet. ]

I wouldn't know.

[neversets]

Ah. Well, if you do, you'll know what I mean. Except yours probably won't be the embodiment of an era with reality bending super powers, so you won't have to worry so much about the flying.

[precedented]

[ He shakes his head. ]

I can't have children. And that's probably for the best. They shouldn't have to inherit my reality-bending powers.

[neversets]

Oh. Serious? You're the adult version of how my girl might turn out?

It's... genetic for you?

[precedented]

No.

[ It's a little sharp and he regrets it immediately. ]

No. No one will be like me and that is a blessing.

[neversets]

[ Not like Jenny. Jenny's powers made her happy, only ever frustrated that they didn't work better, that she couldn't do more. ]

You've suffered a lot because of them, haven't you?

[precedented]

[ He shrugs. ]

They're not . . . organic or natural like the powers you know of.

[neversets]

[ Apollo laughs. ]

I was made like this, by a mad man with technology and machines. I might get it more than you think.

[precedented]

[ Ah. He nods. ]

My father was a product of a genetic experiment. I was the end result. I'm hoping it will end there permanently.