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 Posted: Sat Feb 12, 2022 9:14 pm
He didn’t know when the idea entered his mind. It was a niggling little thing, like a whisper from across the room, and then from behind him, and then right in his ear.
He’d ignored it at first, but as the hours ticked on, as the days came and went, the idea was still there.
Then, it turned from ‘why’ to ‘why not’, and then suddenly he was in a part of the castle he’d never been before. It was colder, darker. More unfriendly. He didn’t like it, personally. He doubted the princess would have found it any more appealing. Down here, her presence felt smaller. Maybe it was just in his mind. Or, maybe she was just fading. A little speck of ‘light’ in a dark room.
It couldn’t be easy, being surrounded by all of Metallia’s power and still trying to reject it.
He had secured permission to visit her, even though there were plenty of hoops to jump through for the–what, the privilege?
He had brought a small offering, but that was tucked away into subspace. He wasn’t sure if he was going to share or not. He supposed he had to meet her while he made up his mind.
The whole thing felt something like a blur, between descending the steps and entering her accommodations. Not that they could really be called that, they were hardly accommodating. But, she wasn’t much of a threat down here.
“Ganymede,” he greeted; there was no false cheer in his voice and he didn’t seem to feel the need to put on any theatrics. He didn’t introduce himself, even if instinct said he should use his manners. You probably weren’t supposed to be too preoccupied with manners when you were visiting a prisoner. So, he didn’t ask how she was, or if she was comfortable.This wasn’t an ordinary conversation.
So, he just jumped right in.
“How long have you been doing all of this?”
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Posted: Sun Feb 13, 2022 8:09 am
Her cell was not as oppressive as the throne room had been, but the heavy blanket of Chaos still weighed on her. Ganymede was aware of Metallia’s power every second of every minute of every hour of every day. She felt smothered by it, saved from almost certain corruption by the additional protection of her homeworld.
The connection remained strong even here, but the time away from her moon came with its own set of problems.
She shivered in the dark, pale and weak, so tired she thought she could sleep for days, if only the nightmares didn’t keep waking her.
Ganymede sat against the far wall facing the bars, head tipped back as she stared at the ceiling, gaze unfocused.
The voice that greeted her was unfamiliar, but the question registered through her fatigue.
“Eleven years,” she said, without the need for calculations. Once, she thought it impossible that she would live long enough to see a decade. Now, she thought it likely she wouldn’t see another.
“Why?” she asked, blinking her weariness away. “What use do you have for that information? I’m not a special case. There are many more who’ve been doing this longer.”
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Posted: Sun Feb 13, 2022 9:54 pm
Lopezite looked at her as if she were any other conversation partner, like she wasn’t being kept in a cage like some feral animal.
“There are others,” he agreed, “And I might ask them, too, if we cross paths. But I am compelled to argue that you are something of a special case.”
He could have pulled up Negaverse records, but he wasn’t here for the information you could find on paper. “I’ve never met another like yourself.” He knew of Castor, there were plenty of records on him. He’d seen him, albeit from afar.
“You must have a different perspective, with all of that power. What are you fighting for? For eleven years, has it made a difference?”
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Posted: Wed Feb 16, 2022 5:11 pm
Ganymede laughed, low and bitter. Her head rolled against the wall behind her, tipping this way and that until she dredged up the strength to sit up and stare through the bars.
“I suppose it depends,” she said. With his predominantly black clothing, this General stood out less in the shadows. “I like to think I’ve made a difference to the people I’ve saved. But when it comes to the war as a whole? No, nothing I’ve done has changed anything.”
The war was as it’d always been — nearly hopeless. The people involved with it changed as the years went on — new faces replaced old ones, allies came and went — but nothing tipped the scales in their favor. Their victories were rarely even their own. Ganymede had the power to save others, but it never felt like enough. When Chaos could sweep a battlefield and steal the lives of so many, what did a small handful of purifications matter in the grand scheme of things?
Once, each one would have been its own spark of hope. But now?
It all seemed so futile.
“What am I not fighting for?” she continued. If she had the strength, she might have sneered. Instead, she seemed almost numb. “I am what I am — a Senshi. Nothing is ever going to change that. My choices are to fight, or to live as normal a life as possible here on Earth and hope the wrong people never find out what I am. Maybe a long time ago the second option might have seemed appealing, but that was before the stakes were higher, when it was just me. Now I fight for everything and everyone, because Chaos has already taken too much from too many people.”
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Posted: Thu Feb 17, 2022 8:19 pm
Lopezite hummed thoughtfully; it was contemplative, as though he was genuinely considering her answer. His expression did not waver, at either her expressions or her tone.
“Perhaps I am fortunate. Chaos has taken nothing from me, so I struggle to see the problem. I’m trying, though. The people you’ve ‘saved’, why? What did they think they were leaving, and what did they think they were gaining?”
He stood resolute, arms crossed over his chest. His back was straight and he looked at her as though he believed she had some valuable insight that could clear all of this up. He was convincing enough in the sincerity of his question and didn’t seem to have any ulterior motive for asking.
He was just curious.
All this time he’d spent in the Negaverse was well-spent, he thought. It might not have been perfect, but how was it better than the lawlessness of the White Moon?
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Posted: Sat Feb 19, 2022 11:04 am
“Chaos has taken you,” Ganymede argued, voice flat. She expressed neither anger nor frustration. These were simply facts. “Chaos is a poison. Someone stuck their hand in your chest to give you that power, and in doing so they contaminated your starseed, made you something you were never supposed to be.
“I was always a Senshi,” she continued. “Before I awakened, and now. No one made me what I am. I was born a Senshi, I will die a Senshi, and I will be reborn a Senshi, over and over, until the end of time.”
Until the end of time.
That was the vow she made, years ago on her homeworld. That was the vow Liesel made, and every Ganymede before him. Even if those words had gone unutered by any of them, they would still be true.
“The people I’ve saved have been lost, and disillusioned,” Ganymede explained. “Chaos feeds you delusions, it preys on the vulnerable, but there will always be those who come to see the truth. Once Chaos has been removed from their starseed, they have freedom.”
She smiled — a small, pitying thing.
“You’re stuck in your own cage, General. You just can’t see the bars around you.”
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Posted: Fri Feb 25, 2022 8:42 pm
Lopezite crossed his arms over his chest thoughtfully and once more considered her words. “No,” he agreed. He didn’t see the bars around him.
“But I do see the bars around you.”
And yet, he was still thinking about her words. He didn’t feel like Chaos had taken him. He couldn’t pinpoint any singular change where he’d become different. He had never felt vulnerable, never felt delusional. He’d never felt anything other than freedom.
But then, maybe he wasn’t asking for so much that he’d ever been felt oppressed. When he spoke, it was without a tone or without judgment. He still didn’t seem like he was looking for any sort of fight, only answers.
“Although, I would argue that you might not have ever known you were a Senshi if your cat hadn’t found you and opened the door to make you what you are. You could have lived a normal life. You didn’t have to be a part of this war. You chose to be. You didn’t come into this with guidance or structure, you made your own decisions and your own rules. You can tell yourself what you’re doing is right, the same as I can tell myself. I don’t think we’re so very different. But I still can’t understand you. You have given ‘freedom’ to others–what have they done with it? Is this world a better place for it? I haven’t seen any change. Have you?”
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Posted: Sun Feb 27, 2022 8:43 am
Ganymede shrugged. She grew weary of explaining herself. What good would it do her here? What good would it do this General? He might not be looking for a fight, but Ganymede wasn’t sure the answers she had for him were satisfactory.
“No one has to do anything with their freedom, if they don’t want to,” she said. “None of them are obligated to fight for this world. They’re not even obligated to fight for their own. Whether or not this world is a better place…”
She paused and pressed more of her weight into the wall. Fatigue grew as heavy as the Chaos which pressed all around her. The oppressive weight of Metallia’s power exacerbated everything, left her slow and weak, her pain magnified.
Ganymede would not give into it. She would not reveal any further vulnerabilities, though she could do nothing about her pallid complexion or the sheen of sweat along her brow.
“How do you make it better?” she countered. “How does the Negaverse? How does Metallia? What did you hope to gain from Chaos? I didn’t have to be a part of this war. I still don’t, if I don’t want to, but you do. Whoever corrupted you made sure of that. You’re chained to Metallia’s will. She can summon you whenever she likes, can’t she? What would she do if you refused an order?”
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Posted: Sun Mar 06, 2022 7:00 pm
Lopezite shrugged and finally decided he didn’t seem to think that there was any reason to avoid Ganymede. She looked tired. He wasn’t going to be negligent, wasn’t going to become some casualty, but he withdrew a brown paper bag from subspace and crossed the distance between them. Somewhat, at least. He dropped the bag by her, assured that whatever inside wasn’t going to sustain much damage from the fall.
It wasn’t much. Fries, still warm. A hot sandwich. He had a room temperature bottle of water, but he passed this over and held it out for her.
“I’ve never been given an order I felt like refusing. So, I suppose I don’t know what would happen. If she gives me an order I don’t like, I’ll have to let you know. But I have freedom here, I think. And power to do what I want. I have resources I’d never have had access to before. I have things that are important to me in Destiny City. The Negaverse supports what I want to do. I like to get strays off the street. Probably not a world shattering goal,” he shrugged, because there was only so much he could say without implicating himself or his projects. “But I think it makes the world a bit better.”
Given what he knew about Ganymede being here, he glanced around her little prison with a bit of distaste. “I can’t give you much in the way of comfort. Do you need anything?”
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Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2022 2:12 pm
Ganymede scrutinized what she could see of the General in the darkness.
He didn’t sound like some of the others, hostile or self-righteous. He didn’t spew accusations without thought. Their conversation felt almost casual, rather than veering into the realm of heated debate. So far, this General seemed less emotional than some of the others, but not in a way that might be particularly discomforting.
Ganymede didn’t know what to make of him. She was used to the more overt evils.
“What I need is to be released, but I’m not likely to get that.”
Still, she took the offered water and drank, unconcerned that it might be tainted. When they killed her, it would not be with poison. The bag of food earned a raised brow. It wasn’t a meal she would have preferred under ordinary circumstances, but at least she’d be full after.
“What did you hope to gain by coming here? You wanted to understand me? Is what I do and who I am really so strange to you?”
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Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2022 8:12 pm
Lopezite smiled, understanding and maybe apologetic that he wasn’t able to grant her request, but not so much that he seemed like he was going to do anything about it. He was sure she already understood why he couldn’t just release her.
“Yes,” he answered. “You are strange to me. I don’t understand you, or most of your kind. Sometimes I think we might be fighting for the same thing, just looking at it from different perspectives. But I can’t seem to find a middle ground that makes everyone happy. I don’t think Metallia is evil. I don’t think anything is so black and white. There’s a lot in this world–and beyond it–that I don’t understand. longer I’m in the Negaverse, the more I realize how little I know. I don’t think Senshi and Knights know what’s going on any more than we do. I just want to protect my home, though.”
He shrugged. “I’m just doing it the best way I know how. The more I learn about space and everything that comes of it, the less convinced I am that the White Moon–or whatever name you choose to go by–belongs here. You were born on Earth, so I suppose I just can’t understand the divided attention. Or what you’re doing here. Maybe there’s a better future for all of us.”
Or, maybe they’d just keep fighting until they wiped each other out. He didn’t think he was wrong for wanting to protect Earth. He couldn’t imagine a world where Metallia wanted to hurt the people here. She gave them strength, and they protected it, and her. It was mutually beneficial.
The others, he couldn’t wrap his head around.
Ganymede didn’t seem so bad, but he wasn’t sure he was any closer to understanding her or what she was fighting for.
But, she wasn’t going anywhere. He’d have a long time to try and figure her out.
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Posted: Sat Mar 12, 2022 9:43 am
“I can assure you, as long as you serve Metallia, we aren’t fighting for the same thing.”
She looked at him now with something like incredulity, like one might look at a child who spoke nonsense — made up stories about fantasy creatures, warped fairytales with no real meaning. True, life was full of shades of gray, which was why Ganymede tried to keep an open mind when dealing with agents of the Negaverse on an individual basis, but the nature of Metallia, in Ganymede’s opinion, was not up for debate.
Metallia would consume the Earth. Perhaps not today, or tomorrow, or a month from now, or next year, but one day, once it served its purpose, Earth would become as the moon of Ganymede once was: a shell of itself, devoid of any life but ghosts and memories.
“As far as I can tell, we were born here because our worlds could no longer sustain life.”
She thought of the butterflies flitting about a wide open field on Ganymede, and wondered if that might not be true anymore. To an extent, at least. Flowers and butterflies couldn’t exactly sustain an entire population.
“I remember the past. I didn’t know Beryl, or the Moon Queen, or her daughter, or any Earthen Prince, but I remember the fall of the Moon Kingdom and the spread of Chaos. Our worlds were destroyed. I couldn’t tell you how or why Earth has survived, why it’s flourished in ways my own world never had the chance to, but… knowing the nature of Chaos… Earth will meet the same fate one day. I won’t sit back and let that happen. Or I wouldn’t… if I wasn’t stuck here.”
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Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2022 7:55 am
Lopezite considered this for a moment and then nodded, but he shrugged shortly afterwards. “I don’t know that ‘Chaos’ is so black and white. But I know that your world doesn’t sustain life, and this one does. And Metallia has been here this whole time. It seems like a generosity that you were born here.”
There was no life on other worlds, only Earth. Ganymede would have died out with her planet if she wasn’t born here, they all would have.
“It sounds like you just don’t want to admit that Metallia might have been key to Earth’s survival. She’s what makes Earth different from everywhere else. There’s no proof that Earth will meet the same fate.” All worlds end, but he couldn’t imagine that it would be by Metallia’s doing that Earth would fall.
“I’ll look into it,” he said, though he doubted he’d find anything to contradict his own beliefs. “If I find anything, I suppose I’ll owe you an apology. I’ll have to come tell you about it. But I doubt it. I hope we can come to some sort of agreement about things.”
The room wasn’t particularly accommodating and he didn’t envy Ganymede in the slightest, but she was an enemy, for as long as she’d oppose Metallia. Maybe she’d find some clarity while she was down here.
Or, maybe Metallia’s generosity would run out.
It wasn’t for him to predict.
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Posted: Sun Mar 20, 2022 9:16 am
The tiniest of smiles twitched onto Ganymede’s face, but it held no friendliness or amusement.
“Even if Metallia was the key to Earth’s survival in the past, that doesn’t change her nature. It doesn’t change the fact that people like me have been hunted down and killed simply for being what we are. Our only interest lies in protecting the Earth and all the worlds beyond it, yet we’re treated as some grave threat when the truth is many of us have struggled just to survive. Earth will meet the same fate if Metallia is allowed to continue. It’s simply a matter of when.”
She doubted he would find much, if he meant what he said and truly looked. Either the truth would be concealed from him, or he’d find just enough to reinforce his own beliefs and stop there — or be stopped, if his superiors thought he was digging too deeply.
There was nothing Ganymede could do about it either way, not while she was stuck in this cage.
“Thank you for the food, General,” she said, taking another sip of water, “and the conversation, though I don’t know that it accomplished much for either of us.”
Another smile curved her mouth. This time, there might have been a touch of warmth to it, for anyone who cared to look for it.
“Maybe one day you’ll see the bars around you. Until then, we’ll have to make do with mine.”
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Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2022 5:54 pm
Honestly, Ganymede wasn’t as awful as he’d expected. She was civil, educated, thoughtful. It wasn’t really any surprise that Metallia had chosen to keep her down here and limit who had access to her. He thought it very likely that someone could have been swayed by her.
But, Lopezite was loyal to the cause, and a little curiosity wasn’t going to be enough to sway him.
“Perhaps,” he agreed. “You have given me something to think about, at least. I appreciate the time you’ve given me. I might be back. I apologize that I’m not the best company.”
He supposed she’d be happier with someone less stubborn. But, he didn’t regret coming down here, and there wasn’t any reason to be rude about it.
She hadn’t hurt anyone he cared about. He’d never lost someone to the White Moon.
She was just a misguided princess. Doing her best with what she’d been given, but. He didn’t blame her. He might have liked to save her, though.
She could have done so much better for the world if she was serving the right side.
But, small steps. He doubted she’d see any other side of things if meant with cruelty and malice.
“Be well, Princess.”
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