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 Posted: Wed Dec 30, 2015 12:54 pm
It was finally getting colder out, although the change in temperature had come too late for Christmas and it was still fairly unseasonable. The weather shouldn't have been unsettling - Babylon knew he should be enjoying the mild evenings while he still could - but between his latest nightmares and the Code's strange behavior, he couldn't shake the uneasy feeling in his stomach. Maybe coffee and an old friend would help. "I wasn't sure how you take it," he said, looking up from his ring and the database's holographic glow at Ganymede's approach, "so there's cream and sugar in the bag." Babylon indicated the bench next to him, where two red cups from a chain coffee shop waited dutifully in a travel tray. This corner of the park was about as quiet as you could find tonight - still, he was glad she hadn't worn her wings. "I talked to Valhalla a few weeks ago," he said, holding the tray out to her. "Is he doing okay? Get that weirdness with his magic sorted out yet?" Maybe he'd never see eye-to-eye with the Jovian knight, but that didn't mean Babylon couldn't be concerned. And the several years of missing memories didn't hurt. He cringed at the thought. "Still got the, uh, amnesia, going on?" Sunshine Alouette Figured I'd skip the pleasantries. Hope that's ok!
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Posted: Tue Jan 05, 2016 1:02 pm
Ganymede completed her approach by plopping herself down on the bench and taking one of the cups of coffee into grateful hands. She breathed in the aroma and wore the expression of someone in dire need of a pick-me-up. Once, she'd sworn off all manner of caffeine, but these days she thought she better understood Chris's addiction. Between regular patrols, long hours with the Destiny City Ballet Company, and the presence of a pair of newborns in her life, coffee was becoming a frequent addition to her diet.
“Val's... I don't know,” she said, stirring what some might view as an unnecessary amount of sugar into her cup. “As good as he can be, I guess. Still no magic. His starseed's cracked. I think it hurts him from time to time.”
She tried to be nonchalant, not wanting to bring the mood down when she'd only just arrived, but it was hard not to look morose when Valhalla's future was so uncertain.
On the plus side, his loss of five years worth of civilian memories meant he was more receptive to Babylon. Chris had actually been happy when she'd said she was on her way to meet him.
“He's been acting odd lately,” she continued. “Stares into space a lot. Looks really uneasy even when nothing's going on. We went to Valhalla a few days ago. It was my first time seeing the Code. It didn't come off as very friendly. I don't think it cares for Senshi much. Val was really unnerved by it.”
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Posted: Tue Jan 05, 2016 4:32 pm
Babylon nodded and, now that she'd selected her cup, set about dressing up his own coffee. He had to feel as though Valhalla's odd behavior was at least partially his own fault - after the conversation they'd had, he wouldn't be surprised if the other knight was spending a lot of time ruminating on his own mortality. Maybe he should have just... shut up and pretended that he didn't know anything about damaged starseeds. And anyway, telling Ganymede what he'd told her husband would probably just make everything worse. She'd, like, panic. Or something. Sighing, Babylon said, "You need to get him to talk to Cosmos. If there's any fixing a cracked starseed, she'd be the one to know." Well, he was fairly confident they could be fixed. It was more a matter of being fixed without needing a hundred-year spin cycle in the galaxy cauldron. Maybe the fact that Valhalla's body was still around and kicking would make a difference? One could hope. He was pretty sure Ganymede still had plans for her husband. Like growing old together. "The code's been weirder than usual lately," he confessed, putting the lid back on his coffee. "Don't take anything it says too harshly, and don't let Val dwell on whatever it told him. It's been... insulting people. Telling them to corrupt." He could hardly fathom what kind of scorn the Code would have for a knight who'd lost his magic, who'd nearly corrupted and been dragged back and had his starseed cracked in the doing. "I'm trying to figure out what's wrong with it," he said, "but I think it's a bit beyond my capabilities to troubleshoot that kind of magic. And the Code doesn't recognize anyone's authority but it's own, so... that's delightful." He had his work cut out for him, to say the least - but as Ganymede had already surmised, the Code didn't really like senshi, so if he was going to find help, it was going to have to come from somewhere else. Of all the ways there were to handle this situation, upsetting the code further struck him as one of the worst.
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Posted: Fri Jan 15, 2016 2:09 pm
“Val's... stubborn,” she said. She dumped some creamer into her coffee and took a sip, then held the warm beverage between her hands. “Sometimes I think he doesn't want to admit that there's something seriously wrong with him, because it means accepting that... you know... he might not... be around much longer...”
It was a distressing thought. Hard as it was, she pushed it out of her mind as soon as she said it. The longer she spent dwelling on it, the more difficult it would be for her to focus on anything else. Of course it upset her. She was very afraid. But if she let it drag her down she'd never get anything accomplished, which included trying to find some sort of solution.
Cosmos was, perhaps, their last hope. Ganymede had a feeling Valhalla had been avoiding that meeting for fear that he'd only be disappointed. She couldn't pretend not to understand.
“Sometimes I wonder if the Code is even what it claims to be,” she continued. She took another sip of coffee. “Not that... I even entirely understand it. The Senshi don't have that sort of thing, so it's just... sort of foreign to me. But... maybe it's finally showing it's true colors and this is what it was all along.”
She didn't want to believe it, because it likely meant that Chaos's reach had spread further than they'd all realized, but she had such little experience with the Code. She didn't trust it to begin with.
“Everything about this war just seems to be getting more confusing,” she said. “Looking back, it was so much less complicated when I first awakened. You Knights hadn't even come around yet. Same with the Dark Mirror Court, and... I don't know. Everything seemed more black and white.”
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Posted: Fri Jan 15, 2016 11:39 pm
"I think it's far more likely that the Code is being acted on by something sinister than for the Code to actually be sinister," said Babylon thoughtfully. He'd gotten about that far in his earlier discussion with Scholomance, anyway, but he hadn't made it to his Wonder yet to question the source. "I think the worst its done so far is give out some bad advice, but we do need to be careful. You and I are a little bit safer than most because of our transcendence... but I do think that something's coming, something we need to be on high alert for." He'd been having vivid nightmares lately, even if the morning light chased the images from his mind - and nightmares, in his experience, were never heralds of anything good. With regards to things seeming more and more complicated, Babylon nodded and considered the idea for a long time. "The way the Code explained it when it first appeared," he said, "it was too weak to appear to us before then. It needed a critical mass of magic or... or something like that. Maybe the fact that there's more and more senshi and knights awakening means that more and more other magical bullshit getting pulled in. Or everything is just... waking up, and the wave hasn't even crested yet." Smiling, he added, "Think of it this way - you had super powers before they were cool." Hopefully, that would get a laugh out of her, because Babylon really didn't want to go right back to talking about her possibly-not-long-for-this-world husband without one. Too bleak. "Even - even if he's afraid there's no good news," he said, "you should talk to her sooner than later. Cosmos can work with a damaged starseed. But she can't work with one that's gone to pieces. He's making a dangerous gamble - but I don't think he'd take my word for it. Probably, he'd pick that exact moment to remember how annoying he thinks I am." Maybe, if he was lucky, he'd get another laugh. But probably not.
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