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(no subject)

Who: Apollo
Broadcast: Fleet wide
Action: SS Bishop
When: Now-ish?

Broadcast

[Apollo looks... a little flustered? Slightly bewildered? Like he might have accidentally exploded cooking supplies?]

I'm trying this cooking thing. I'm pretty sure it's not dangerous to eat, but does anyone want to come and be a guinea pig? These gel things are making roasts a lot fucking harder than they should be...

Action

[On the Bishop, Apollo has taken over the kitchen for now. He manages to look surprisingly domestic, bumming around in ship standard provided clothing and hair pulled up into a ponytail that bobs along to whatever music he's imagining as he 'cooks'.

Cooking occasionally involves eye lasers. Which doesn't work on the gels half as well as he hoped it would.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

_{[ He grins at the attire, glad he didn't come underdressed - though he
thinks that this suits the other better than the fancy ball costume. ]}

You look like you're ready to head out to the beach.

_{[ He steps in, waiting for Apollo to lead the way to the kitchen.
]}

I was at home relaxing when I was grabbed for this open zoo show. It was summer, I was thinking about flying Jenny over to visit Jeroen for some lessons in manipulating the fundamentals of reality.

[He leads the way back to the kitchen.]

Yeah, just what every young girl wants to do with her summer vacation.

_{[ Seriously, he's not sure how to handle some of the things that come
out of your mouth Apollo. But he follows all the same and goes to inspect
what Apollo has going for him. ]}

It's a good look for you.

_{[ He plucks at his own shirt. ]}

Farm-country chic, this is.

Well, she can't go to regular school. Given that part of her is as old as humanity itself and that part likes to occasionally reverse gravity in a small localised area. And Jeroen is in much the same boat. Plus, he tends to become a hermit who doesn't go outside if we don't go and drag him out on occasion.

[And Apollo worries about him lapsing back into his old habits. Mostly the 'heroin is the greatest thing ever' habit. No one wants the Global Shaman on smack.]

Or, you know, anyone living anywhere, ever past about ninety eighty.

Hmm, I know the sort. But it sounds like a good arrangement. I can't imagine there are that many 'Reality Bending' teachers in any universe.

_{[ He rolls his eyes, but smiles. ]}

I'm from 2259 - trust me, this is farm boy where I'm from.

No, not really. The Shaman and the Jenny tend to be it.

Yes, Jenny is sort of a title.

[He gives a low whistle.]

That's... significantly in the future for me.

Is that weird for Jenny?

_{[ He grinned at him. ]}

More precisely, I'm from 2260. But I've gotten the idea that I'm significantly in the future for a lot of people. I think the only person who beats me by any margin is Beverly Crusher. She's from one of my alternate futures.

_{[ Don't mind him digging through your fridge, Apollo. ]}

Nah. I don't think she really thinks about it. She's only six. Nearly seven.

I don't think I've met Beverly. I haven't found anyone from a world that close to mine. Kitty has super heroes, but apparently it's genetic evolution in her world. And Kurt's. I wonder if they come from the same world. Maybe.

[He goes back to his mixing.]

Can I help you there?

When you get the chance, you should. Lovely woman, and a damn good doctor too.

I've talked to quite a few people from past Earths. Some sound similar to what I've read in history books. And others... well, others are like yours and Kitty's. Something else entirely. But I like to think they're just all different possibilities. Who knows? Maybe one of yours will end up turning out a little like my own.

_{[ He poked his head up. ]}

I was trying to see what sorts of ingredients you had to work with.

I've spent a lot of time hopping parallel universes, to be honest. The Carrier, our ship, she can fly through space, but she refuses to. However, she has no problems with wandering across realities, so long as we let her go back to our world when she wants.

Do you use baby universes in forcefields as power supplies?

_{[ You see this look he is giving you, Apollo? That's look of -
seriously? That's your normal? Well all right then. ]}

Ah, no, no they don't. They use nuclear reactor cores.

_{[ Of which he had a very intimate knowledge of that made his skin
prickle to think about it. ]}

And we can't go between realities. I only know of them because of... of an accident.

_{[ He licked his lips and swallowed, remembering said accident. Two
years, almost three, on and still that sight haunted him. ]}

Yeah, we're not big on nuclear technology. Carrier has a baby universe and there's been some work towards trying to replicate the technology, harness stars as a power source inside forcefields.

[He looks at Jim for a long moment.]

That bad, huh?

It's the only reliable source we have for powering the ships without need constant refuels, not to mention being able to create the energy required for sustained warp speeds. The technology has come a long way than what I think you know it as.

_{[ He nodded quietly, eyes dark for a moment. ]}

We lost a planet, a lot of lives.

Angie was working on anti-matter engine, but I have absolutely no idea what that involves or how it works.

[Apollo is quiet, watching.]

I'm sorry. You saw it, didn't you?

_{[ His grip tightens on the door of the fridge, just enough to lighten
his knuckles. ]}

I tried to stop it. I - we - failed. Thankfully we stopped him from taking out Earth too. But it was a close thing.

[Apollo steps up behind him, a warm presence, and reaches to uncurl his hand form the fridge door.]

It wasn't your fault.

_{[ He takes a breath, letting Apollo uncurl his hand, squeezing his in
quiet thanks. He lets out a rough laugh, turning his head to look back up
at him. ]}

Sorry. I came to show you how to cook and here I am, telling you a sad story.

[Apollo watches, not smiling for once, just calm and attentive.]

I don't mind. We all have darkness in our lives, sometimes we need to share it. Air it out.

_{[ He wasn't used to talking about it. Especially not with someone he
had just met at a ball. But... Apollo felt like he had seen some things. A
lot of things. Maybe that was why he felt he could speak to him of it.
]}

In my head, I know it's not my fault. It's Nero's - him and his petty vengeance. But it doesn't stop you from wondering, you know? What would have happened if we had just done a little better, gotten there a little faster.

_{[ A shrug, pulling back and slightly changing topics out of habit.
]}

His appearance is what made the time-lines diverge between myself and Beverly. It's strange - she's from my future, on an Enterprise of her own, but the events she knows and the ones I do are very different in some places.

[Apollo's... seen a few things. Done a few things. Wondered 'what if' when people died because a fight went poorly.]

Yeah. You put the blame where it lies. On the people who do shitty things and those that help them to do that shit.

I get the what ifs. Never had it on a planet wide scale, but I think everyone who has known some kind of tragedy has wondered 'what if'. You just get a bigger dose of it.

[Alternate time lines. He knows only a bit about them. Been to a few, remembers Pluto and Daybreaker, or the world where he was a woman called Eos with a cleavage that seriously didn't quit.]

So the divergence was fairly recent, comparatively. I haven't been to one of those, though apparently StormWatch witnessed as very close parallel where the main difference was apparently a friend of mine, Jack, had all his augments removed and became the Weatherman.

_{[ Here comes the interesting part - for Kirk at least. ]}

The divergence happened when Nero accidentally got dropped backwards in time. He came out, essentially, right on top of my father's ship - and destroyed it. My father died in the encounter, and I was born during it. So for me, it's quite a personal break from what little I know of my other self.

Vulcan being destroyed is the biggest divergence though, and what all those lost lives might have accomplished.

Wow.

[That's pretty heavy there. He has no parents to care about, but he knows how he feels about Jenny being without him. Being without Midnighter.]

I'm sorry. That bites. Do you want a hug?

_{[ He glanced at him up and down and chuckled. ]}

You can hug me any time you want, Apollo.

_{[ Flirtation was easier than facing his own issues or feeling said
issues. At least they weren't getting into his mother basically abandoning
him and his brother too. ]}

[Apollo didn't quite go for flirty and instead gave Jim a tight, firm hug.]

_{[ That's okay. At this point the flirtation is more a shield than
anything else, an old habit to fall back on and find a comfortable spot in.
The hug takes him by surprise despite his invitation of it. He lets out a
snort against Apollo's arm, wrapping his own around him in turn and giving
a squeeze. He stands there for a heart beat before pulling back and
returning to his regard of the fridge. ]}

Right, after that I better show you how to make something. My speciality is pancakes for the record.