aldis hodge, heterosexual cisgender male + he/him ― hey look, it’s apollo finch! they’re forty years old, they’ve lived in shrike heights for twenty years, and they’re currently working at late riser (owner). i heard they’re pretty closed off, but i think they’re so reliable at the same time. can they make it out alive? || ariluz, 28, they/them, est.
tw: family loss & death
Okay friends! Apollo is a brand new character of mine so as usual I’m going to spill out a bunch of words below that may be subject to change at some point. Open for any and all plots you can think of!!
Born and raised in Kansas
Uncle and legal guardian to Eilonwy Finch ( @urdamage)
Growing up, Apollo was a pretty happy child. He was close to his older brother and spent a lot of time with his parents. As a teenager he loved nothing more than cooking, which surprised his parents and though his father wished he would spend time doing something more practical, his mother loved it and taught him everything she knew. On any holiday he was right next to her in the kitchen helping her prep, not caring if his family made fun of him for the matching aprons he had with his mother. He could have stayed there forever, opened up a restaurant with his mother and lived the rest of his life happily.
But as he was entering his twenties, he came home from his college classes one day to find his parents distraught and gathering their things to go to the hospital. His brother and his sister in law had been killed in a car accident. It changed everything for him and though for the first four years of his nieces life he had been an attentive and lively uncle, he totally disappeared into himself.
Naturally he had to get away and he found that escape in the form of a woman named Zora. She was a dream, a salve for his pain and a motivator for his dreams. She convinced him to move to her hometown of Shrike Heights and he was all too eager to get away. Leaving behind his parents and niece (though he wrote and sent money when he could) he went off with Zora to Colorado.
The distance proved to be good for him, he finished up his college courses, he worked some late shifts at the local gas station to have enough to get by and on late nights when he came home he would enter into his own form of therapy: cooking. He cooked whatever his heart wanted to and Zora loved to watch him. She was encouraging and gave him the motivation he needed to actually open up a place of his own. So they made a plan, looked for buildings, talked to real estate agents and figured out how much they needed to save.
By 25, Apollo was a married man. He and Zora had a little ceremony and even went back to Kansas briefly to get his parents blessing. Everything felt like it was falling into place.
Just as they were about to break ground on where the restaurant would be, Apollo received the call that his father had passed away. Devastated but now the only Finch man left, he went back home for a short while to be with his mother but she was insistent that he went back and continued his dream. Their dream he had called it.
And so a year later he finally opened Late Riser and his mother had been present at the opening. It was a small 24 hour diner that not only mixed his mother’s recipes with his own but also provided wanderers of all kinds a place to rest. He was over the moon and he hung a picture of his mother and him cooking up in the kitchen. But what he didn’t know was that his mother’s visit to his opening would be the very last time he saw her.
Just a few months later, he got a call from his niece and he suffered what he thought was the last blow of his 20s but he was wrong.
When it came to be evident that he was Eilonwy’s only option for a guardian, he saw a side of Zora he had never expected to see. He hadn’t realized how much she didn’t want children and the idea of taking in a 12 year old terrified her. Their marriage had been suffering anyway with the opening of the restaurant. With his own loss he was spending all the time he had into making the diner be the best it could be. And Zora had started to grow resentful. Resentful enough that she gave him an ultimatum and he couldn’t believe that the woman he loved and married would want to make him put his own flesh and blood in foster care.
Apollo made his decision clear and when he came home from the diner one early morning he found Zora’s things gone and a note with her wedding ring lying on the table.
So his 30s were spent being a legal guardian and working his ass off to keep the diner open, now the sole owner of it. He was not at all prepared to take care of a pre-teen but he didn’t really have a choice. He was dealing with his own grief, feeling completely alone in the world and not entirely sure how to relate to a young girl who had also lost so much. So he closed himself off.
He made sure Eilonwy had what she needed. Groceries, clothes, school supplies, on some nights he would sit her at a booth in the Diner and his staff would entertain her and get to know her while he ran around the kitchen. In a lot of ways his staff were the ones who helped raise Eilonwy when he didn’t quite have the tools to.
It wasn’t until Eilonwy moved out on her own that he truly realized how much he had failed her by not giving her more joy in their home, by letting his own grief overshadow hers but none of that hit him until he was facing another loss and an impossible choice.
The construction of the new mall posed a serious threat to the diner and he had people coming in every day offering him money. He kept refusing, until it became clear he could either take a deal or get his ass sued into oblivion until they eventually bulldozed the space.
So with no other options, he took the deal and now, late riser sits in the food court of the mall with an even smaller space and smaller staff. His mother’s picture still hangs above the counter and now that Eilonwy has moved out he spends even more time at the diner, working his life away and avoiding as much pain as possible.
But he realizes now that his main purpose should be to re-connect with Eilonwy and make up for all the time he wasted.
Headcanons:
A very kind and thoughtful man who can often come off as a bit grumpy and frazzled. Mostly because he’s always trying to carry the entire operation of the diner on his shoulders.
Openly hates the mall, hates his bosses, hates everything about it and will tell anyone. But the pay is decent and he’s been able to hold onto his house and his business. Still, he hates it all (lol)
Before the mall opened he used to hold weekly “community dinners” at his house and invite all his friends from the community to come to his house and eat. He stopped after a while but is considering opening it up again with all the attacks and great need for community.
Honestly an incredibly sad person. Eilonwy is the only family he has left and he feels he totally fucked up their relationship. She still doesn’t know why his wife left and he plans on never telling her. But despite his shortcomings, he would give up his entire life if it meant Eilonwy being okay and happy. She just reminds him so much of his brother and his parents that it’s hard for him to process sometimes. But with the killers about he’s determined to try to keep her safe how she can. When she was involved in an attack it was a big wake up call and he’s tried to be more present in her life since.
Possible Connections:
All my 35+ folks wya!!!
He’s been in town for 20 years so friends, neighbors, friends of his wife (technically he’s still married because they never divorced and he dont know where tf she’s at)
Regulars a late riser either since it’s been in the mall or before it was at the mall
Cooking buddies
friends of Eilonwy who know who he is
anything you can think of, really. I’m always down to clown!
