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 Posted: Sun Jun 13, 2021 12:28 am
The outburst exhausted him in the same ways that walking 30 feet exhausted him or dealing with a mouthy Captain exhausted him. Now, however, he was left with no energy and too many telling stains on his face.
Faustite had learned the beauty of cursing when he was in the Rift — that it came with some absurd catharsis, and that in a place so bleak and austere, cursing was often the only human thing he could do to keep his human side alive. Now, it offered him nothing. It might've helped him cry, but bitching out his dead squid hadn't hurried along acceptance. Hadn't patched the gulf forming between him and Yuuri. As he stood on the sidewalk, looking out at so much empty city, he felt it. Felt that same sense of unfulfillment.
There was more to do, he knew. There was always more to do.
The squid was long gone. Whatever stain the squid had left behind was washed away between rainfall and tire treads. He doubted the Princess ever thought about the youma she dusted, or that his allies had, excepting Kamacite. They were the pair left behind at this point in time. Rubbing his face again, Faustite started to walk.
It would be some time, he knew, before he found enough cattle for the energy to teleport home.sunshine alouette hopefully this works for a start! thanks for being patient!
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Posted: Tue Jun 15, 2021 2:17 pm
Sometimes, when the Negaverse targeted a specific area, Ganymede would patrol it later in case they should choose to target it again. There often wasn’t much to stop them from returning when they found easy pickings, except for those dedicated Senshi and Knights who made themselves a thorn in the Negaverse’s side.
Ganymede rather liked to be a thorn in the side of a particular agent (a Queen, actually; was Laurelite still considered an agent, or was she above such petty things now?), so whenever an opportunity arose, Ganymede made sure to make herself a nuisance.
Which brought her back to the scene of the crime.
She came to an area near the Farnsworth building at an easy stroll, even when the aura of a General nudged at her senses. She continued to look around until she caught sight of a figure up ahead, slight and youthful, powerful and strange, but not yet causing trouble.
Ganymede did not attack, though she made a cautious approach.
“Is there a reason you and your people keep coming around here?” she called out to him.
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Posted: Wed Jun 16, 2021 3:23 pm
Roused from his thoughts, Faustite paused at the voice. Black and white, red accents, blonde hair, slight. She matched Jet's description. Squinting through her painful aura, Faustite recognized her for the eternal that Cybele was sent to confront. That made her a squid murderer.
Faustite halted. Put out, he was too aware of his lack of heat. He felt cold, and he faced a Princess. And while she wasn't wearing her overwrought dress, something in her aura sent his youma side into a frenzy. "Is there a reason you're ******** asking? Mind your ******** business. You killed my ******** squid." Lips twitching, Faustite kept his hands clenched to avoid doing something he would be made to regret.
Great start to finding out about Cybele, to acting poor and neglected and in need of dropping his entire life. What a mess; this should've been Sylvite's job.
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Posted: Thu Jun 17, 2021 7:46 am
Other than a brief quirk of her brows, Ganymede did not react to the accusation.
She almost forgot about that damned squid — would have, if her exposed skin hadn’t itched for a few days after. She certainly hadn’t thought it belonged to anyone, though knowing that wouldn’t have changed her response to it. Youma were a danger to the city. If they couldn’t be saved, they had to be exterminated.
“Your squid attacked me,” she said. “Did you sic it on me? How else would you expect me to respond? How was I even supposed to know it was yours? I don’t remember seeing you with it.”
Ganymede let her gaze track over him. She was certain she would know him by sight if she’d seen him before.
“What’s your name, General?”
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Posted: Thu Jun 17, 2021 5:34 pm
"Chrysocolla," he answered automatically.
"My squid's stupid. It went off on its own. Now it's gone forever." His voice warbled toward the end, but he forced himself to swallow. Forced himself to approach, all kindling and scathing and afterburn. "Don't you care that you're killing people?" Didn't they know what youma were, when they so happily dusted them? Or did only human bodies matter, and human origins meant nothing?
The Princess lacked any obvious signs of damage — no lean, no limp, no red gouges in her exposed skin. When Cybele faced her, she must not have been able to do damage. Faustite knew he couldn't, either.
"Why are you here, Ganymede."
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Posted: Thu Jun 17, 2021 6:41 pm
“I haven’t killed anyone that can be saved,” Ganymede said.
There were no easy choices in war, but Ganymede never questioned her response to youma. Whatever they were, wherever they came from, whatever they might have once been, there was little left in them by the time they became like the squid. In battle, there were too many enemies to keep track of to worry about the fate of monsters.
“I’m here because you and your people staged an attack recently. I thought maybe some of you might give it another try, and here you are.”
Not that she expected a lone General would be able to do much, especially one who didn’t appear to be in peak condition.
“Why are you here, Chrysocolla?” she countered. “Mourning your squid, or did you have other plans for the night?”
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Posted: Fri Jun 18, 2021 4:43 pm
"How dogmatic," he sneered. He shouldn't have expected any different — Castor was inflexible in his beliefs, too. It should've been endearing, that conviction. Yet it irked him, left him boiling about his dead squid and how this tiny skanky thing so quickly dismissed Perkele.
"Maybe I'm here to 'give it another try'." His demeanor wasn't convincing, he knew. The way he slouched against a street lamp as if staying upright was its own insurmountable chore wasn't convincing. Since the attack, so many civilians avoided the area — in part due to the caution tape demarcating the investigation, and in part due to simple reticence. They were hard-pressed to return to an area of hardship. The bitten hand always taught better.
Faustite should've known that. He did know that, but he chose otherwise.
The smothered General sighed through his nose. His headache flared brighter the longer he dealt with her. "I'm here because Squiddy's dead. That squid was —" he paused, scoffed at himself, clicked his tongue. Glancing askance, he added, "Why? Looking for a reason to dust another youma?"
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Posted: Mon Jun 21, 2021 8:18 am
Ganymede shrugged, neither thoughtless nor nonchalant, merely accepting things as they were.
“If another youma attacked me or went after an innocent civilian, then yes, I’d have a reason to dust another one,” she said, “but the streets seem quiet tonight. Other than you.”
She let her gaze trail over the General, letting his image burn into her memory. He was an interesting sight, clearly not your average agent. Someone more naive might deem him a threat by his attitude alone, but Ganymede had her doubts. The slouch was telling.
“But your tough guy act isn’t fooling anyone,” she told him. “What’s wrong? Already bite off more than you can chew for one night?”
Taunting him was mildly satisfying, in a way, but it would do her no good, so Ganymede changed tactics and went with a warning, “You know who I am. I’m sure your people have plenty of information about me by now. If you want to leave, leave. You could use some rest. But if you decide to attack anyone, I think you know how this will end.”
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Posted: Thu Jun 24, 2021 3:04 pm
"Not any different than a youma," he clarified to her. His head lolled to the streetlamp, ever watching her as cool steel soothed a margin of his headache.
Her taunt soured his expression, but he had nothing more to say about it. She didn't seem aware the cause-and-effect of her actions, and Faustite would be remiss to clarify that to her. Better she never find out how a personal youma could cripple an agent; better the White Moon never uses that as a weapon against the officers who saw their youma as worthy tools. They suffered enough, dwelling in the Rift. Starving for energy.
He, too, starved for that balm.
"Can't leave without energy," he responded brusquely. "Teleportation isn't free." His index finger spiraled up, then opened palm supine.
"Pay up or shut up." His hand collapsed to his side. "Not in the mood to be told how wrong I am. How my existence offends people." He stared at her blearily, wondered how he could possibly direct this abysmal conversation toward Cybele. Nothing came to mind beyond the headache. Nothing ever did.
Better if he didn't need a head at all. Maybe that was the next step, if he ever reached Sovereign.
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Posted: Sat Jun 26, 2021 8:04 am
Red lips curved into the slightest frown, eyes narrowing into a mild squint, like something was off about this entire confrontation and she couldn’t figure out what it was.
Maybe it was the General himself, young-seeming, and a little lost, tormented by the loss of his squid. Ganymede thought she should feel guilty, but couldn’t allow herself to. Choices were made in the heat of battle, and she would stand by them. The squid attacked; she responded. It shouldn’t have been there in the first place — wouldn’t have been, if the Negaverse hadn’t staged an attack on unsuspecting civilians.
She laughed lightly, humorless when she said, “Should’ve thought of that energy problem before you decided to come out here.”
Much like he should have thought about the life of his squid before he brought it into battle. If it was so important to him, one would think he might have guarded it better.
Ganymede decided to keep that thought to herself.
“I’m not entirely against offering a bit of my own energy,” she said instead. “I’ve done it before, for one of your own. But I’m also not convinced you’d use it as intended. I had more reason to trust an old ally than I do to trust you.”
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Posted: Sat Jun 26, 2021 9:49 am
"Thought about it," he countered. "Decided the city is full of people who waste their energy. Shouldn't have a problem getting back. Then I met a Princess." He decided, likewise, that he didn't care if he made it back. He couldn't use his strengths anymore, and most days, he could hardly function. What worth to the Negaverse did one nearly incapacitated soldier have?
And how much worth did he want to have? Worth made him indispensable. He wasn't sure he wanted to be.
"Maybe your old ally can vouch for me." With every throb of his headache, her appearance distorted just so. Better if he could rub his temples, but that would give away a little much. In a flourish of black fingers, a communicator sprung from nowhere. "Who was it? I'll call them."
Anything to move this stalemated conversation. He hadn't the patience to deadlock with this one, and he hadn't the time.
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Posted: Sun Jun 27, 2021 5:34 pm
Ganymede couldn’t help herself. She laughed — part amused, part joyful, part relieved (so relieved, now that Cybele was home again).
“You can put that little device away,” she said, eyeing it briefly.
As much as she despised the Negaverse, she was somewhat intrigued by their operations. The more she knew how the enemy functioned, the better prepared she’d be to defend against them. That included whatever means of communication they had at their disposal.
As a younger Senshi, she’d not paid attention to such things. She paid attention now.
“You won’t be able to call her,” Ganymede continued. “Not anymore. She recently had a change of heart.”
Another smile, this one self-satisfied, crept across Ganymede’s face. “If the Negaverse treated their soldiers better, maybe they’d have more luck keeping their agents invested. If you get the chance, tell your Queen I’m happy to pick up the slack.”
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Posted: Tue Jun 29, 2021 5:04 am
An old ally that purified, then. Matched Cybele's description, but they only knew Cybele was missing. And she could hardly be the only Negaverse officer that was once on their side; while helpful, he didn't want premature conclusions. "You call her, then." He vanished his tablet pen, hand closing on nothing.
"Too low on the rungs for that. Try someone else," he answered with lukewarm annoyance. If she found it only fruitful to waste her time on the lower ranks if she could get a message to the Queen, then it was a wonder anyone purified. Who would follow someone like that? Who chose to follow someone like that, instead of the organization they worked painstakingly for?
Faustite breathed a long, smokeless sigh. Still no ire, only ashes. Frustrating.
"Don't know why anyone would purify," he added as he straightened himself up. Little use it did, for how he still hung onto the streetlamp. "Always see your lot working alone, isolated. Don't see any calling for help when they get in too deep. Must be lonely, that lack of camaraderie. Friend must've thought you'd back her up, but here you are, alone."
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Posted: Tue Jun 29, 2021 8:41 am
“And here you are, alone,” Ganymede countered.
For all the Negaverse hailed their own organization, their ranks and their orders and their distorted sense of family, it was all an illusion, a lie fed to them by Chaos, feeding on their hopes, their fears, their weaknesses, their want for something greater, better, more. But Chaos held them captive, beat them down, took everything they had and gave them little in return.
Unless they were the unfortunate few who proved themselves worthy of a power beyond what this one had already gained.
“Are you lonely, then?” she asked him. Miss your squid friend, she wanted to taunt him again, but she held it back, thought it too mean.
“I don’t need company tonight, so I came alone, but I could call any one of my allies, and they would come,” she assured him. “Can you say the same for yours? Would they come because they want to, because they care for you, or because they’ve been made to obey after Metallia stripped them all of their free will?”
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Posted: Tue Jun 29, 2021 11:36 am
"By choice." Always difficult, anymore, to slip out without Yuuri.
She wasn't calling her friend — dead end on that one. Faustite's nails curled against the street lamp's scalloped metal pole to a pitched drone. Then they met his palm, where they paced back and forth. Strike two, then. They weren't getting anywhere.
It was his turn to leave a question unanswered, and she provided the escape.
"They'd come. Mix of reasons, not all to do with me." Some wanted the accolades, the glory. Some wanted to prove to themselves that they were good people by coming to the aid of others. Some would come because they knew him, and knew he was a useful officer. Some would come out of obligation. Some would come because… He wasn't truly certain why Yuuri would come to his call, only that he would, and it made him itch to think that his friend's loyalty was so unwavering as that. He hoped that wasn't true.
"Suppose you want to try." Not that he had the energy left in him for a battle. Still, it was easier to do than to speak. Playing with points was better left to his Captaincy.
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