Application for paradisa
CHARACTER NAME: Apollo
FANDOM: The Authority
CANON: The end of Revolution issue 6.
WHAT THEY LOST: His ability to fly. It’s his most used ability because he uses it to get around quickly as it’s his preferred method of travel. It’s also important because he’s able to fly to the sun and recharge it powers quickly with direct sun contact. Without his ability to fly it will take much longer to charge his powers from the ground
ABOUT THE CHARACTER:
Thanks to being one of many human test subjects of Henry Bendix, Apollo doesn’t have any memory of his earlier life or of his real name. All that’s known is that he was one of the many that signed up for it and once Bendix had successfully gathered all his experimental superheroes together as a team to speak their code names, they all lost any memories they had before. Apollo was assigned the leader position of Stormwatch Zero, the secret team Bendix formed that only he knew about. But on their first mission all the members of Stormwatch Zero were killed, except for two, because the mission was a set up created by Bendix himself. The two who survived-Apollo and The Midnighter-escaped and went on the run from Bendix for five years and at some point fell in love.
Five years later, while Apollo and The Midnighter are tracking weapons made in the Nevada Gardens, the Stormwatch team-now under new leadership after Bendix’s death-discovers their existence and transports them to SkyWatch, the Stormwatch base. There, they learn that Bendix is dead and they team up with Stormwatch to destroy the Nevada Gardens. Afterwards there are provided with new identities and a place to live out their retirement.
But that wouldn’t last long and less than a year later they’d get a visit from a former Stormwatch member, Jenny Sparks, asking them to join her new team The Authority and help make the world a better one. Under Jenny’s leadership they fought the dictator Kaizen Gamorra, an invading alter universe called Sliding Albion, and God. Then at midnight of December 31, 1999 Jenny Sparks dies because as the Spirit of the 20 century her time is up and her soul is reincarnated into a baby born in Singapore at the exact time she dies. This baby is known as Jenny Quantum, the Spirit of the 21 century. The Authority have to fight and kill a team of super soldiers created by an evil scientist named Krigstein who has kidnapped the baby Jenny in hopes of raising her-and thus the century-in his own image of how the world should be. They defeat his soldiers, rescue Jenny and instead of killing Krigstein they…offer him a job.
Then the Authority has to deal with the governments of the world getting mad about the way they do things and trying to replace them. Which works for a time until the Midnighter, who manages to escape with Jenny Q, rescues his team and they kill their replacements. Soon after Apollo and the Midnighter get married and adopt Jenny Q.
The Authority soon after decide to take over the United States and replace the government with themselves after they find out the US government is responsible for an alien attack the wipes out Florida. Soon after their take over a team of super soldiers, who turn out to be WWII veterans who have regained their youth, begin to massacre all Authority followers and train their own followers to attack the Authority. Meanwhile the Midnighter gets teleported to an alternate world where he meets an older Apollo who tells him about the eventual fall of the Authority and that the Midnighter must disband the team in his world so that it doesn’t happen.
The Midnighter returns to his world and shares his information with the Carrier, the living entity shiftship the team lives on, and asks her to help him break up the team. So then the Midnighter goes around and picks fights with the team leader and put doubt in everyone’s mind that leads the team to screwing up terribly and blowing up Washington D.C. The Midnighter leaves the team and his family behind to go fight crime in back alleys of Russia. After the rest of the team breaks up Apollo makes an agreement with the government and takes Jenny Q to live in San Francisco. Three years later Jenny Q asks Apollo to find the old Authority members and ask them to visit the grave of the Doctor, a member of the team who died of over dose. No one agrees because they don’t want to be in the public eye so Jenny Q and Apollo go. While at the grave Jenny Q uses her powers to take her to the Garden of Ancestral Memory, where all the Doctors go when they die. She comes back in tears and tells Apollo that something is wrong because Jeroen- the Authority’s former Doctor-wasn’t there.
Now let’s talk about his personality. Apollo is probably the nicest and most normal of all his teammates. And by nice I don’t mean that he’s less likely to let a criminal walk away without at least some permanent damage or that’s he’s more forgiving, because when it comes to the people they fight, Apollo doesn’t give a damn if they’re sorry or are planning to build an orphanage with their bare hands to repent for their crimes. What he knows is that they did terrible things and now they’re going to suffer the consequences. Like a majority of the team, Apollo sees in very black and white terms. There’s the innocent and then there’s the people who try to corrupt the innocent and they must be punished. But it’s also important to mention that Apollo is the least vengeful of the team. Sure he’ll get angry at times but he’s not one to prolong someone’s suffering. He prefers to kill them quickly but not necessarily painlessly.
But, going back to my first point, Apollo is a nice guy. He gets along with people and makes them feel comfortable. He’s considerate and a good person to go to when you want to talk or vent or hang out with someone. He knows how to handle the most difficult of people, the Midnighter being the best example, and he’s a caring friend, father, and husband. But he also has a sarcastic streak a mile wide and the worst of situations doesn’t keep him from cracking jokes about it. For example he once flew through a storm of flaming pieces of sun while carrying a full airplane of people and cracked jokes about being the Apollo Airline. He’s that kind of guy.
Some of Apollo’s biggest flaws are a border line superiority complex if not a total complex and the fact that he can be eerily calm at times. For the complex, it’s something I believe the entire Authority has to some extent because they believe that they should be able to do whatever they want as long as they are making the world a better place. This includes taking over a country and threatening their way to a peaceful solution. As for Apollo’s crazy level of calm, he tends to be very chill in the most dangerous and bloody of situations. A good explanation would probably be that he’s seen so much death and destruction that he’s just completely desensitized to it, but that’s not always a good thing because it stops him from feeling the amount of horror he should when dealing with the kind of people he fights. It ceases to mean anything more than just another day on the job.
Apollo is very self aware. He never tries to be something he’s not and he’ll never try to justify his actions falsely. He knows that people hate the way they work and he knows that the methods they use are sometimes unorthodox and very like that of a bully forcing people to do what they want. They’re bastards and Apollo recognizes that and will admit it. But as long as they are fighting for a better world, Apollo believes he and his team are in the right. And that’s the one thing he wants the most-to create a finer world. A world without killing or fear or the rich abusing the poor or the strong trampling the weak. It’s what he’s fighting for. It’s what he’s always fought for and it’s what he will continue to fight for. And he won’t shed any tears for anyone they have to walk over to reach their goal.
Aside from his goals of making the world a better place, Apollo lives for his family. He’s known the Midnighter for all of the life that he remembers and he’s pretty much Apollo’s best friend. They’re partners in every sense of the word and he loves the Midnighter more than anything. And then there’s their daughter Jenny Q. Apollo has always been very affectionate towards her, carrying her on his shoulders, taking her for flights around the world, he’s the parent that Jenny Q can always count on. Not that the Midnighter is a bad father, he just tends to be at war with himself a lot of the time and Apollo, as stated before, is the one with all the people skills.
A few random things about Apollo are that he spends his free time watching loads of TV which includes Friends marathons and he tends to rant about how Hollywood takes good ideas and then buries then with other crap. Plus he likes abusing the Midnighter’s ears with Doris Day music. Also, the only thing he’s ever had a nightmare about is Henry Bendix and the experiments that were done on him.
ABILITIES: A complete list can be found here.
THIRD-PERSON WRITING SAMPLE:
The last thing he remembers is holding a crying Jenny in front of the Doctor’s grave as she tried to explain through sobs that Jeroen wasn’t in the Garden of Ancestral Memory like he should be. He had rubbed her back soothingly and tried to get her to calm down, but he doesn’t remember going home or going to bed. He shifts slowly onto his side and opens his eyes and…doesn’t recognize the room. It’s definitely not his bedroom or even one of the few guest rooms they have. His heart starts to pound harder and he pushes himself up and off the bed. A quick survey of the room showed no sign of Jenny and he couldn’t help but feel a moment of fear before he pushed it away.
After all, Jenny is the most powerful girl in the universe and despite only being eight she has the soul of a woman who has lived for centuries. But all the same a part of him wished strongly that he’d remained linked with Angie and Jack telepathically. Then he wouldn’t have to waste time trying to find a phone. The minute he thought that something suddenly appeared in his peripheral vision and he turned to look at the nightstand. Sitting on top of it was a simple black cordless phone and its charger. That definitely hadn’t been there before. He picks it up slowly, holding it like a bomb that might go off. After a moment he deems it innocent enough and dials Angie’s number on the Carrier…and the line goes dead. He dials it again with the same result. Then he tries his own home number and the line dies once again.
“What the hell?” He slams the phone down in frustration and runs a hand through his messy hair. He needs to find answers he just doesn’t know where to start. He looks around the room one more time, this time taking in every detail, trying to see if anything can tell him where he is. Finally his gaze lands on the desk in the opposite corner of the room. Lying on top is a normal hard covered journal. He stares at it for a long moment in confusion before curiosity gets him to pick it up and flip through it. He nearly drops it when he sees his name on the first page and he quickly flips past it to see if it’s empty or not. It’s definitely not. He finds himself sitting down hard on the chair next to the desk as he reads the entries made by the people in this…castle?
Finally he throws the journal aside and puts his face in his hands. “What have I gotten myself into this time? How many times does a guy have to retire before this kind of thing stops happening?” He probably would have sat there and continued his little pity party for a bit longer but he has things to do. Like finding his daughter and figuring out where he is and how he can leave. He wonders if Midnighter had ever prepared for a situation like this and his lips twist up slightly in a smile. If Midnighter is anything it’s a paranoid SOB so he probably did. For a moment Apollo allows himself to wish his husband was here before he shakes that thought away. There’s no time to set himself up for disappointment when there’s things to be done.
FIRST-PERSON WRITING SAMPLE:
Hi. I don’t really know how you’re supposed to start writing these things. Never been the journal writing kind of guy unless you count that Dear Abby letter I wrote one time as a joke. Well, Midnighter thought it was a joke but that’s a whole other story. The bottom line here is I’m looking for my daughter. She’s got long brown hair and brown eyes. She’s eight but she acts like she’s going on thirty. Anyone seen her?
And Jenny, if you’re reading this respond ASAP and tell me where you are. I don’t know what’s going on but I plan to find out.
INTENT: What draws me to the character is that he manages to be a decent and happy guy despite being in a team where violence is generally the end result of anything they get involved in and living in a world that inhabits some of the worst tragedies and people that anyone can imagine. What I want to do with him is take him out of the world he knows how to deal with and put him in a place that’s totally new and-at least appears to be-a finer world then the one he left. While world hopping isn’t anything new to Apollo, I think Paradisa will really take him out of his element.
FANDOM: The Authority
CANON: The end of Revolution issue 6.
WHAT THEY LOST: His ability to fly. It’s his most used ability because he uses it to get around quickly as it’s his preferred method of travel. It’s also important because he’s able to fly to the sun and recharge it powers quickly with direct sun contact. Without his ability to fly it will take much longer to charge his powers from the ground
ABOUT THE CHARACTER:
Thanks to being one of many human test subjects of Henry Bendix, Apollo doesn’t have any memory of his earlier life or of his real name. All that’s known is that he was one of the many that signed up for it and once Bendix had successfully gathered all his experimental superheroes together as a team to speak their code names, they all lost any memories they had before. Apollo was assigned the leader position of Stormwatch Zero, the secret team Bendix formed that only he knew about. But on their first mission all the members of Stormwatch Zero were killed, except for two, because the mission was a set up created by Bendix himself. The two who survived-Apollo and The Midnighter-escaped and went on the run from Bendix for five years and at some point fell in love.
Five years later, while Apollo and The Midnighter are tracking weapons made in the Nevada Gardens, the Stormwatch team-now under new leadership after Bendix’s death-discovers their existence and transports them to SkyWatch, the Stormwatch base. There, they learn that Bendix is dead and they team up with Stormwatch to destroy the Nevada Gardens. Afterwards there are provided with new identities and a place to live out their retirement.
But that wouldn’t last long and less than a year later they’d get a visit from a former Stormwatch member, Jenny Sparks, asking them to join her new team The Authority and help make the world a better one. Under Jenny’s leadership they fought the dictator Kaizen Gamorra, an invading alter universe called Sliding Albion, and God. Then at midnight of December 31, 1999 Jenny Sparks dies because as the Spirit of the 20 century her time is up and her soul is reincarnated into a baby born in Singapore at the exact time she dies. This baby is known as Jenny Quantum, the Spirit of the 21 century. The Authority have to fight and kill a team of super soldiers created by an evil scientist named Krigstein who has kidnapped the baby Jenny in hopes of raising her-and thus the century-in his own image of how the world should be. They defeat his soldiers, rescue Jenny and instead of killing Krigstein they…offer him a job.
Then the Authority has to deal with the governments of the world getting mad about the way they do things and trying to replace them. Which works for a time until the Midnighter, who manages to escape with Jenny Q, rescues his team and they kill their replacements. Soon after Apollo and the Midnighter get married and adopt Jenny Q.
The Authority soon after decide to take over the United States and replace the government with themselves after they find out the US government is responsible for an alien attack the wipes out Florida. Soon after their take over a team of super soldiers, who turn out to be WWII veterans who have regained their youth, begin to massacre all Authority followers and train their own followers to attack the Authority. Meanwhile the Midnighter gets teleported to an alternate world where he meets an older Apollo who tells him about the eventual fall of the Authority and that the Midnighter must disband the team in his world so that it doesn’t happen.
The Midnighter returns to his world and shares his information with the Carrier, the living entity shiftship the team lives on, and asks her to help him break up the team. So then the Midnighter goes around and picks fights with the team leader and put doubt in everyone’s mind that leads the team to screwing up terribly and blowing up Washington D.C. The Midnighter leaves the team and his family behind to go fight crime in back alleys of Russia. After the rest of the team breaks up Apollo makes an agreement with the government and takes Jenny Q to live in San Francisco. Three years later Jenny Q asks Apollo to find the old Authority members and ask them to visit the grave of the Doctor, a member of the team who died of over dose. No one agrees because they don’t want to be in the public eye so Jenny Q and Apollo go. While at the grave Jenny Q uses her powers to take her to the Garden of Ancestral Memory, where all the Doctors go when they die. She comes back in tears and tells Apollo that something is wrong because Jeroen- the Authority’s former Doctor-wasn’t there.
Now let’s talk about his personality. Apollo is probably the nicest and most normal of all his teammates. And by nice I don’t mean that he’s less likely to let a criminal walk away without at least some permanent damage or that’s he’s more forgiving, because when it comes to the people they fight, Apollo doesn’t give a damn if they’re sorry or are planning to build an orphanage with their bare hands to repent for their crimes. What he knows is that they did terrible things and now they’re going to suffer the consequences. Like a majority of the team, Apollo sees in very black and white terms. There’s the innocent and then there’s the people who try to corrupt the innocent and they must be punished. But it’s also important to mention that Apollo is the least vengeful of the team. Sure he’ll get angry at times but he’s not one to prolong someone’s suffering. He prefers to kill them quickly but not necessarily painlessly.
But, going back to my first point, Apollo is a nice guy. He gets along with people and makes them feel comfortable. He’s considerate and a good person to go to when you want to talk or vent or hang out with someone. He knows how to handle the most difficult of people, the Midnighter being the best example, and he’s a caring friend, father, and husband. But he also has a sarcastic streak a mile wide and the worst of situations doesn’t keep him from cracking jokes about it. For example he once flew through a storm of flaming pieces of sun while carrying a full airplane of people and cracked jokes about being the Apollo Airline. He’s that kind of guy.
Some of Apollo’s biggest flaws are a border line superiority complex if not a total complex and the fact that he can be eerily calm at times. For the complex, it’s something I believe the entire Authority has to some extent because they believe that they should be able to do whatever they want as long as they are making the world a better place. This includes taking over a country and threatening their way to a peaceful solution. As for Apollo’s crazy level of calm, he tends to be very chill in the most dangerous and bloody of situations. A good explanation would probably be that he’s seen so much death and destruction that he’s just completely desensitized to it, but that’s not always a good thing because it stops him from feeling the amount of horror he should when dealing with the kind of people he fights. It ceases to mean anything more than just another day on the job.
Apollo is very self aware. He never tries to be something he’s not and he’ll never try to justify his actions falsely. He knows that people hate the way they work and he knows that the methods they use are sometimes unorthodox and very like that of a bully forcing people to do what they want. They’re bastards and Apollo recognizes that and will admit it. But as long as they are fighting for a better world, Apollo believes he and his team are in the right. And that’s the one thing he wants the most-to create a finer world. A world without killing or fear or the rich abusing the poor or the strong trampling the weak. It’s what he’s fighting for. It’s what he’s always fought for and it’s what he will continue to fight for. And he won’t shed any tears for anyone they have to walk over to reach their goal.
Aside from his goals of making the world a better place, Apollo lives for his family. He’s known the Midnighter for all of the life that he remembers and he’s pretty much Apollo’s best friend. They’re partners in every sense of the word and he loves the Midnighter more than anything. And then there’s their daughter Jenny Q. Apollo has always been very affectionate towards her, carrying her on his shoulders, taking her for flights around the world, he’s the parent that Jenny Q can always count on. Not that the Midnighter is a bad father, he just tends to be at war with himself a lot of the time and Apollo, as stated before, is the one with all the people skills.
A few random things about Apollo are that he spends his free time watching loads of TV which includes Friends marathons and he tends to rant about how Hollywood takes good ideas and then buries then with other crap. Plus he likes abusing the Midnighter’s ears with Doris Day music. Also, the only thing he’s ever had a nightmare about is Henry Bendix and the experiments that were done on him.
ABILITIES: A complete list can be found here.
THIRD-PERSON WRITING SAMPLE:
The last thing he remembers is holding a crying Jenny in front of the Doctor’s grave as she tried to explain through sobs that Jeroen wasn’t in the Garden of Ancestral Memory like he should be. He had rubbed her back soothingly and tried to get her to calm down, but he doesn’t remember going home or going to bed. He shifts slowly onto his side and opens his eyes and…doesn’t recognize the room. It’s definitely not his bedroom or even one of the few guest rooms they have. His heart starts to pound harder and he pushes himself up and off the bed. A quick survey of the room showed no sign of Jenny and he couldn’t help but feel a moment of fear before he pushed it away.
After all, Jenny is the most powerful girl in the universe and despite only being eight she has the soul of a woman who has lived for centuries. But all the same a part of him wished strongly that he’d remained linked with Angie and Jack telepathically. Then he wouldn’t have to waste time trying to find a phone. The minute he thought that something suddenly appeared in his peripheral vision and he turned to look at the nightstand. Sitting on top of it was a simple black cordless phone and its charger. That definitely hadn’t been there before. He picks it up slowly, holding it like a bomb that might go off. After a moment he deems it innocent enough and dials Angie’s number on the Carrier…and the line goes dead. He dials it again with the same result. Then he tries his own home number and the line dies once again.
“What the hell?” He slams the phone down in frustration and runs a hand through his messy hair. He needs to find answers he just doesn’t know where to start. He looks around the room one more time, this time taking in every detail, trying to see if anything can tell him where he is. Finally his gaze lands on the desk in the opposite corner of the room. Lying on top is a normal hard covered journal. He stares at it for a long moment in confusion before curiosity gets him to pick it up and flip through it. He nearly drops it when he sees his name on the first page and he quickly flips past it to see if it’s empty or not. It’s definitely not. He finds himself sitting down hard on the chair next to the desk as he reads the entries made by the people in this…castle?
Finally he throws the journal aside and puts his face in his hands. “What have I gotten myself into this time? How many times does a guy have to retire before this kind of thing stops happening?” He probably would have sat there and continued his little pity party for a bit longer but he has things to do. Like finding his daughter and figuring out where he is and how he can leave. He wonders if Midnighter had ever prepared for a situation like this and his lips twist up slightly in a smile. If Midnighter is anything it’s a paranoid SOB so he probably did. For a moment Apollo allows himself to wish his husband was here before he shakes that thought away. There’s no time to set himself up for disappointment when there’s things to be done.
FIRST-PERSON WRITING SAMPLE:
Hi. I don’t really know how you’re supposed to start writing these things. Never been the journal writing kind of guy unless you count that Dear Abby letter I wrote one time as a joke. Well, Midnighter thought it was a joke but that’s a whole other story. The bottom line here is I’m looking for my daughter. She’s got long brown hair and brown eyes. She’s eight but she acts like she’s going on thirty. Anyone seen her?
And Jenny, if you’re reading this respond ASAP and tell me where you are. I don’t know what’s going on but I plan to find out.
INTENT: What draws me to the character is that he manages to be a decent and happy guy despite being in a team where violence is generally the end result of anything they get involved in and living in a world that inhabits some of the worst tragedies and people that anyone can imagine. What I want to do with him is take him out of the world he knows how to deal with and put him in a place that’s totally new and-at least appears to be-a finer world then the one he left. While world hopping isn’t anything new to Apollo, I think Paradisa will really take him out of his element.