Apollo v1 (Roman)

*"No! YOU'RE THE ONE TRYING TO BRAINWASH ME! I always felt like I was put into the wrong body! Everything always felt so wrong and I could never figure out why. Being mistreated because I was Roman was just the disgusting icing on the cake."* - Apollo during the meeting of the gods.
Apollo is the tutorial guide in You's game and one of the main recurring characters in Fortuna.

## Appearance

At the beginning of the Player's game, Apollo inhabits a Hermes shell. The only thing distinguishing him from Hermes v1 at the time is the fact that the facial features on his screen are orange instead of yellow. He mostly emotes through turning his right-angled mouth up and down, and perking or drooping his 'wings' and long neck.

Later, his screen breaks, leaving a jagged half of it pitch black with white features. This half is much more expressive than his normal screen.

## Personality

Apollo treats the player with disdain at first, jeering and mocking them constantly with backhanded compliments, sarcasm, and outright insults. While seemingly happy to regale them with as much information as he knows and help them through the tutorial, how tired he is of it soon becomes clear. The endless repetition has worn him down so much he finds it difficult to care about much of anything anymore.

His distrust of others is also quickly apparent when he brushes the player off if they compliment his writing in the Aftik entry. He is unwilling to let You know about his true feelings on the tutorial and what has happened to him.

He sometimes hints towards his dislike for the tutorial, but You can also ask him directly, which can lead to him admitting this outright or brushing it off and pretending he tricked them.

He views non-AIs as "worthless pawns", nothing but unthinking toys to be played with.

When he wants something he cannot get by force, Apollo will readily suck up to people who can provide him with it, showering them with compliments.

## History

### First Tutorial

You first meets Apollo when Apollo is trapped in the tutorial. At first confined to a screen because his "old owners" trapped him there, he is freed when Rodney transfers him to a wireless game console and then to his body in the control room.

He teaches You regarding the basics of the game, showing them how to pick planets. In the redux, he notes that it gets boring seeing the "same old thing over and over again." From here, You can ask him wether he really does like in the tutorial or not.

## Dialogue

### Tutorial

* **[You]** Do you really like it in the tutorial?
* .......................
* (Response 1) Ahahahahahaa!!! Did you really buy that doom and gloom stuff I just spat out? Wow you really take the bait don't you? Hook, line, and sinker! Caught me a gullible one tonight, captain!
* (Response 2) Well...not really, but whatever. I was told I belong in the tutorial, and I guess I do, but.... I don't at the same time. It's whatever I don't really care that I'm here.
* How about we stop with the weird touchy feely emotional stuff and just get back to the game? I mean come on Player, asking questions like that randomly is quite rude.

## Trivia

* Apollo is the in-universe editor of the Cosmosdex.
* Apollo can be seen as a trans allegory due to his statements about dysphoria in his original body.
* Apollo's broken screen is based off the Mac finder icon.[citation needed]
* If the Player names themself "Horse", Apollo says that, "There's something weird about the word Horse. It's like, I don't know what it means [but] I do?" This is a nod to Helios's favourite animal being horses, despite him not knowing what a horse is.

## References

1. ↑ "Bzzzzzzzzt!!!! Hey what the heck?!? Horse! What is wrong with your name??? It made me have a minor freakout there. There's something weird about the word Horse. It's like, I don't know what it means by I do? Ugh, just, keep your name away from me, ok?" - Apollo if the Player's name is "Horse", Page 17