🔮 locked in the gardener’s gate 👁 bxb pafp🔮

"the rogue" is what they called him. bestowed with the powers of gravity manipulation for some mysterious, unknown reason, the man blessed the great city of new york with a period of peace that had, in a mostly-powerless world (referring to the lack of powers, of course), been unmatched. only the most daring - or, as some like to think, the dumbest - even attempt to challenge him. with his powers, he can push or pull almost anything, similar to the moon's control on the ocean the tides. sometimes he uses his abilities to fly, which allows him to make a quick escape. it's not often that he faces much of a challenge in peacekeeping, but there seemed to be a few thorns in his side; a few recurring villains seemed to find some kind of pleasure in constantly pestering him, and there was one that was particularly annoying.

as for the name, that stems from the aforementioned quick escapes. he appears, gets the job done, and then disappears. witnesses, of which there are few, note a flurry of black clothing and high speeds. but other than that, there isn't much to go off on when it comes to determining who may or may not be the city's beloved hero.

in reality, the rogue is a simple moniker taken on by the twenty-two year old marcus gainsley. he attends new york city's own new york university, where he studies law and intends to one day become a lawyer as his day job. lawyer by day, hero by night - a certainly appealing idea for the young man. six foot two inches, and with a slim, yet athletic build and handsome features, he gets a lot of attention from women. unfortunately for them, he doesn't often swing that way, and usually prefers to date his own gender. marcus, known to his friends as "mark" lives in an apartment with a single roommate, who helps out with the rent. and the apartment was where he was spending his day.

marcus laid on his bed, relaxing momentarily after finishing his shift at work. a swift glance at the clock on his bedside table alerted him to the time, which happened to be 6:00. he'd been laying in bed for a thirty minutes. where had the time gone? now that he was thinking about the time, his stomach began to growl, loudly demanding food. a deep breath announced his rising from the bed, and after stretching momentarily, he headed out of his rather small room and into the conjoined living room and kitchen. he headed into the kitchen and grabbed a box of leftovers from the fridge and considered eating those, but instead he put them away and headed to his roommate's room instead. without knocking, he popped his head into the door and spoke. "hey, you want to order something for dinner? we don't have anything except for leftovers."

unlike jasper, marcus rather favored meat over fruit and vegetables. specifically chicken and fish. but, he wasn't unwilling to compromise. veggies for jasper, and meat for marcus was the preferable option. after pondering the question for a moment, he thought of a solution. "how about chinese food? we haven't had that in a while. i can get some from the restaurant down the road," came marcus's response. he jabbed his thumb over his shoulder as he spoke, as if pointing at the restaurant.

it took slightly longer to process jasper's second inquiry. where had he been all day? marcus was sure that he communicated where he would be to his roommate, but apparently he hadn't. "i've been working since eight, and i had to stay later than usual. you know how my boss is, being super annoying and all." he realized then that he was rambling, and didn't even return the question. how rude of him. marcus tended to have that habit, and he usually didn't even realize until hours after that he had talked too much. that was something he definitely needed to work on.

with a deep sigh, he swung his roommate's door open more than it was before and leaned back against the doorway. "how about you? you seem to be in some pretty deep thought there, and i haven't seen you leave your room since i got home." he folded his arms at that remark. even though the two had been roommates for a while now, he was still unaware of what jasper's major was, or what he even did in his free time. the most that mark knew was that he spent a lot of time tapping out essays on a particularly expensive-looking computer. and so did marcus, but whereas jasper wrote essays, mark mostly spent his time reviewing real-world cases.

a glance around jasper's room revealed a lot of things that he'd never took notice of before. marcus did not often travel into his roommate's room, so each time that he did, he noticed things that he'd never seen before. marcus's own room was particularly personalized, with posters and pictures adorning the walls. there was barely any space left on his walls anymore, and marcus was tempted to take some of them down, but he really couldn't bring himself to. he figured that he would have to do it one day, though. with a final look, marcus's blue gaze shifted back to jasper as he waited for a response.

// should something happen while they go to get food?

with a nod and a spoken alright marcus pushed himself off the doorway with the intent of heading to his room to get ready to leave the apartment. his roommate's words called him back though, and he stood in the doorway longer so that he could construct responses. "yeah, it kind of sucked. stupid bitch had me clean up messes that weren't even mine while everyone else went home. i swear she has it out for me." he huffed at the thought. he didn't exactly enjoy his work all that much, but he needed the money.

jasper's remark about the essays made marcus's brow wrinkle in disgust. sure, mark also had to write essays, but having to compose several of them in less than a day sounded like his worst nightmare. marcus isn't a slacker by any means, but that didn't change the fact that, like most other students, found college to be torture. most of his work consisted of case studies, though, which he didn't exactly mind. "i hope they aren't particularly awful. i would hate to have to write multiple essays in a day." he watched with bored interest as jasper stood and laid his laptop upon his dresser.

marcus's eyebrows raised inquisitively when jasper offered to go with him to the restaurant. a shrug of his broad shoulders was his response, but soon enough he was speaking again. "you don't have to if you don't want to. i'd only be gone for a bit. anyway, i'm going to go get ready." with that, he moved from jasper's room to his own, where he threw on a pair of joggers and a twenty-one pilots t-shirt. he headed for the stairs that led down to the door of their apartment where he put on a pair of vans and waited for his roommate to catch up. he played around on his phone a bit while he waited for his roommate to catch up. there was nothing particularly interesting in the news, and his social medias had nothing that caught his attention either. he slipped his phone and his hands into his pockets and waited with a look of boredom.

// that's alright! do you have any ideas for what could happen? i kind of asked about that without really considering the options lmao

marcus flinched toward the door when jasper announced that they were both good to go. he stopped whenever the other male decided that they were kidding and ran to water their marigolds. mark found jasper's apparent obsession with house plants to be quite odd, but the plants are a nice touch to their otherwise boring apartment, so the taller male kept his mouth shut and just dealt with it. he didn't like having to water the plants on occasion, especially considering that they're not technically marcus's plants, but it's not a particularly huge deal.

after jasper returned from watering the marigolds, marcus rapidly descended the stairs. he swung the door open and stepped out, and without waiting for his companion, began to stroll down the sidewalk in the direction of the restaurant. he pondered as to what he should get from there. rice is always a good option, but dumplings are pretty good too and he was kind of craving noodles. either way, it didn't really make a difference. food is food, and as long as his belly was full he was perfectly content.

realizing that he had quite rudely abandoned jasper, he stopped at the first crosswalk and waited for his roommate to catch up. that was another thing that marcus needed to work on. he often did not notice when he was leaving people in the dust, and that wasn't helped by his particularly long strides due to his height. he leaned against the streetlight and retrieved his phone from his pocket while he waited. there was still nothing relevant on the news, and marcus was growing increasingly bored. he hadn't had to fight a villain in quite a while, and he was really itching to use his powers again. he was restricted from using them at home due to jasper's presence, so it was always nice to get to use them when he got the chance. unbeknownst to him, his shorter roommate was also gifted, and also was one of his worst enemies.

he returned his phone to his pocket and looked up, only to notice that jasper had still not caught up. marcus retraced his steps until he was next to jasper again. "you walk slow," marcus teased, gently nudging his roommate with his elbow.

// oh, idea! what if whenever jasper goes out that night, he does something with his powers and marcus goes out to stop him? they're both really wanting to use their powers anyway. and one of them could injure the other, and the injured one goes home to get stitched up by the other i volunteer marcus

he walked too fast? possibly. marcus preferred to think that jasper was just too slow. and sure, he could walk fast, but if his roommate was truly that tired, then there wouldn't be any harm in walking at a slightly more lethargic pace. a shrug of his shoulders and a friendly grin accompanied his response. "maybe. i make no promises." he did slow down though, just to accommodate for jasper's smaller strides.

it was then that he glanced across the street where jasper had been looking. the fleeting look revealed something rather odd to marcus. had the branch just grown longer, or were his eyes playing tricks on him now? marcus assumed the latter. if that was true, then working for nine hours straight had taken a lot more out of him than he had previously thought. he really needed to get a new job. with that thought, he pushed the idea of rapid tree growth to the back of his mind and looked forward.

it was only then that marcus realized that jasper had requested to go to the store first. "yeah, sure. food can wait. where's the store?" if the store was only a short walk away, then marcus could definitely postpone getting food for a bit to get whatever jasper happened to want from whatever store they were about to go to.

meanwhile, marcus thumbed the pocket that his phone was stored in. to anyone else, the action might seem suspicious, but in reality marcus was silently praying that it would vibrate with an alert about an escaped convict, or a bank robbery, or anything. he'd gone too long without using his powers, and the same could be said about the amount of time he'd gone without apprehending a criminal. the articles online kept talking about the rogue's absence from new york city for a while, and many people on online forums were beginning to theorize that maybe the rogue had disappeared altogether. marcus so desperately wanted to prove that he wasn't about to go anywhere.

marcus followed jasper to the store, and once there he opted to remain outside. he was a large person, and the stores in new york tended to be rather small, so it was just better and more comfortable for him to not go inside. sometimes he hated being as tall as he was, but he also knew that there were other, taller people that had the same issues. taking showers aren't particularly fun, considering that his head almost hit the shower head every time he took one. sometimes he liked being tall, other times it happened to be awful.

he was grateful for jasper being fast in buying the ibuprofen. marcus was pretty hungry, and he was almost beginning to regret letting jasper go to the store first. but it didn't end up mattering. in a matter of moments, jasper had emerged from the store, and they once again began their short trek to the restaurant. getting food didn't take too long either, and thankfully it was cheap. despite having a job, he didn't have too much money because a good portion of it went to paying the rent on their apartment. sometimes he thought that the price was unreasonably high. he hardly noticed jasper's silence on their walk.

the pair went home quickly and once they got there marcus immediately collapsed on the couch after grabbing a box of fried rice and an egg roll. he retrieved the remote from the coffee table and flicked on the tv while jasper inquired about his classes. "yeah, i think so. and i'm betting that they'll assign me a shit ton of homework tomorrow, too." marcus didn't bother checking the news for anything, and instead changed the channel to one of those movie channels where all that is played are mostly shitty films. fortunately for him, the movie happened to not be awful. he found iron man to be a pretty good movie, even if tony stark technically didn't have any powers.

"hey, you ever seen this?" inquired the taller male, nodding his head in the direction of the television. his icy blue gaze never left the tv, and he took a couple bites of the egg roll while he watched the film progress.

"yeah, me too," was all that marcus could really think of to respond with to jasper's first remark about his homework. the law professors tended to be unforgiving in assigning homework to their students, and while a lot of it was the same stuff that they'd done before, it still always took forever to complete. he couldn't wait for the next break to roll around, because he was tired of staying up past midnight to complete homework that ultimately didn't teach him anything.

in the time between his roommate's next response, marcus had finished his egg roll and was already working on the fried rice. he tended to inhale his food and oftentimes it kind of astounded his friends at how quickly he could eat. "yeah, a few times. it's not the best, but hey, neither are most of the marvel films. and that's coming from a fan of them." his gaze flicked from the television to his roommate a few times before it ultimately settled back upon the movie. he wished that they had come home earlier to see more of it. he also wished that they had a better tv provider so they could actually rewind the movie for once. marcus wasn't a big fan of starting a movie halfway through, but sometimes that's just what ended up happening.

marcus barely registered what jasper said next until after it was done with. he vaguely recalled hearing something about needing to do homework, that he'd be going to nathan's place (whoever that may be), and he'd be back in a few hours. that was fine with mark - he quite enjoyed the privacy that a vacant home gave him, and in fact, that was kind of what he had been hoping for. "yeah, i'll still be up. probably doing homework, but i'll almost definitely be awake." like jasper, he would also be halfway lying.

being home alone gave him more time to himself, and that meant going out of the apartment to fight crime wherever it happened to arise. he didn't have that opportunity whenever jasper was home, or else the darker-haired male might find out that the rogue is, in fact, marcus. he figured that someone smart like his roommate might be able to figure that out, so he didn't want to run the risk of exposing his heroic identity.

as soon as marcus heard the door shut signalling jasper's leave, he immediately turned off the tv and headed for his own room. he retrieved an ugly-looking device from his bedside drawer, a small motherboard with some wiring attached to an audio output device. he flicked it on, and it immediately began spitting out the words of police officers speaking into their radios. in other words, it was a police scanner, and despite its shabby appearance, a pretty powerful one at that.

his next move was to head to his closet where he pulled out a long and dark trench coat as well as a pair of black trousers. he grabbed a black baseball cap meant for concealing his face as well as a mask that covered his nose and mouth. he changed into the dark outfit while listening intently to the police scanner. afterwards he slipped on a pair of combat boots and headed for the door, police scanner in hand.

the cool night air greeted the upper half of his face as he stepped outside of his shared apartment. marcus made a beeline for the closest alleyway where he rocketed up to the top of the building on his right, where he gained a good vantage point of the surrounding area. the police scanner thankfully worked even from the top of the roof.

it wasn't long before there were reports of a mysterious man attacking an apartment building with what seemed to be rapid tree growth. marcus grinned under his mask. finally, he thought. a challenge.

he rocketed through the air until he found the man. there wasn't much light due to the street lights having been blocked out, but in the dim glow provided by the surrounding area he could make out enough. the police were right - there really was a man that was somehow manipulating the plants into attacking the innocent inhabitants of the apartment. marcus held out his hand, and from it came a powerful wave of force that ripped the tree's branches from the building and kept them suspended in the air.

"i will not allow you to bring any more harm to these people," came his voice, powerful enough to be heard even from the top of the building. marcus deepened his speech to conceal his identity.

"tch," was the only sound that marcus made once the unseen villain turned to face him. despite enjoying the privacy that he got whenever jasper was not around, he did not enjoy the silence that was brought upon by the absence of his roommate. and he also did not enjoy whenever the people he was supposed to be fighting stayed silent. it brought an air of mystery that he couldn't say that he was a huge fan of. it irritated him that his opponent was not responding to his vigilante speech.

he watched with interest as the other man lifted himself from the ground and onto the apartment building, and then promptly lowering himself again. marcus wondered what the point of that was, but his thoughts were quickly interrupted when he heard police sirens approaching, and fast. "hear that? looks like the police are here earlier than usual," he sneered, looking down at the other man in a way that communicated that he felt superior to the man on the ground. due to his snide remark, marcus hardly noticed the rose vines crawling up the wall until it was too late.

he managed to blast away a few of the vines with his abilities, but due to the strict five second cooldown naturally placed on his powers, two of the vines were able to curl around his arm. the thorns easily broke through his clothing and pierced his skin, creating a deep wound that drew more blood than he would have preferred. the wound hurt, but he'd faced greater pain before. in all honesty, this was nothing. but it was enough to make him wince and mentally chastise himself for letting himself get injured.

it was at that time that the police had gathered on the left portion of the street. he looked down, blinded momentarily by the extraordinarily bright blue and red lights. he squinted and looked away. i trust that they have this covered. with that, he took off for their apartment. once inside, he put away the clothes that he had been wearing, opting instead for a pair of gym shorts and a t-shirt. he was surprised that jasper had not returned yet, but that was more than okay with him considering that he had to find a way to cover up the wound before his roommate got home. since the kitchen was where they kept medical supplies, marcus headed there, but to his dismay he was having no luck in locating the bandages.

// sorry that it took me so long to respond!! i haven't had time to myself all day until now

the longer that marcus took to find the bandages, the more blood that oozed from the wound on his upper arm. it was quickly covering his arm now, coating the limb in a layer of scarlet. he was at least grateful that it had yet to get on the counter and the floor. while he fumbled around in more drawers and cabinets, he began to wonder if the bandages even existed. his thoughts were interrupted by his roommate's voice behind him.

hearing jasper's voice made marcus jump. he was certainly not expecting his roommate to already be home, especially not when he was bleeding everywhere. shit, was his first thought. he didn't have time for a second thought because jasper was already questioning him about how the wound came to be. "uh, well, i ran into a really nasty cat. it didn't like me very much, if you can't tell," marcus spoke, adding a shaky, forced laugh at the end. marcus was an awful liar. he turned back around and began to sift through their drawers again. "hey, have you seen the - oh." before he could complete his thoughts, jasper had taken his other, less bloody arm and was leading him to the bathroom.

on their short walk, mark internally thanked himself that jasper was not the villain that he had just fought. he thought it would be pretty embarrassing for his enemy to see him in a state like that. and he was also hoping that the shorter male would not call him out on his obvious lie, because marcus was not entirely sure that he could come up with something better than his previous poor excuse. lying certainly wasn't his forte. good thing he didn't pursue villainous acts, because if they ever tracked it back to him, there would be absolutely no way that he could convincingly lie to the police. and he also silently prayed that jasper wouldn't put two and two together and find out his secret identity. he figured that if his roommate really put any thought into it, based on his frequent disappearances as well as the rogue only showing up whenever marcus wasn't home, that jasper could find out.