|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Sun May 28, 2023 3:49 pm
Of course, out of everyone that Cybele knew who hadn't been there to watch as she'd grown wings and unlocked the power of a Princess, she'd wanted to talk to Ganymede about it the most. Ganymede was Cybele's sister, someone who had consistently been there for her, even at her darkest points. She'd saved her from Chaos, at least twice. She was likely the one that Cybele was closest to, outside of her partners. On top of that, she was a Princess herself. She'd been one for years. She had to, Cybele told herself, know at least a little bit about what was going on. Cybele had asked Sessrumnir, his family, and some of the others to let her share the news herself, but even so she knew she only had so much time before news started getting around. There had been a lot of people there that night. Any one of them could run into Ganymede out on a night walk, or post something in a database somewhere. As soon as the situation with Chris and Paris's surrogate had stabilized, she'd asked Ganymede if she could show her something. She'd powered up into her Eternal form just far enough from Ganymede's house as to not arouse any suspicion, and she wasted no time in reaching a hand out towards her sister. "We're going to need to go to my world for this," she said, a slight mix of nerves and excitement still buzzing under her skin.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon May 29, 2023 5:30 pm
Even as deep in her feelings as she was, with each day seeming to bring some new source of stress, Ganymede had a smile ready for Cybele.
She knew, vaguely, what had happened at the bank. She knew that the bank had been destroyed. She knew something about what was being kept there. She knew Faustite was a General King. (That fact hurt more than almost all the others, not because she cared what became of him, but because it meant one more hurdle between the forces of the White Moon and Metallia’s destruction.) She knew there was at least one dead agent, and a young Squire without her starseed.
There’d been a few wins, and some losses. Such was the way of the war.
Tonight, Ganymede tried to banish all of it from her mind. There would be time to worry about it later. For now, she would allow herself a small shred of excitement.
She’d never been to Cybele before.
“Should I be worried?” she asked, taking Cybele’s hand.
She didn’t mean it. Ganymede wasn’t worried at all. Not about this.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon May 29, 2023 7:53 pm
"It's nothing bad," said Cybele. Even though she could tell that Ganymede wasn't truly worried, she was quick to reassure. Her phone was already in her hand, and she pressed the button and watched as the surroundings shifted around the two of them. They ended up in the middle of a lush wood under a soft lilac sky. This place had come a long way since Cybele had first purified and found it full of skeletal trees, with no signs of life save for a few flowers poking up here and there. Now the trees were full of deep green or bluish leaves, and the empty silence had been filled with the chirps and calls of bugs. A few large beetles were even visible on the bark of the trees, with exoskeletons that appeared to be formed into antlers. A jackalope startled at their presence and skittered off deeper into the woods. "It's something big," she said, and there was pride in her eyes, even if her smile was nervous, pressed to the side. "Something that I don't quite understand, but I thought you might, considering everything." That said, she shifted. Her skirts lengthened, and so did her sleeves, becoming so long that they almost touched the ground. She stretched out her wings behind her, careful to stay steady as her balance shifted. The soft breeze ruffled her feathers. It felt nice. She stood before her sister as a Princess. "It happened at the bank," she said, glancing down to take a better look at it all now that she had the time to do it.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Jun 01, 2023 11:18 am
Ganymede would’ve liked to admire her surroundings. Even at first glance, Cybele’s world was so much different than her own. The sky. The leaves that swayed upon the trees. The wildlife. It thrilled her even now, after so much had returned to her moon, to see the same occurring elsewhere. Beyond the troubles of Earth, life was a comfort.
They may need these places as the war dragged on.
But the joy Ganymede took in a living world was short-lived. Cybele’s power grew, her attire changed, and a pair of large wings, real instead of decorative, stretched out behind her.
Ganymede wanted to be proud. She wanted to be happy for Cybele, and for everyone Cybele would be able to save, but all she felt in that moment was dread.
She blanched and sucked in a breath, then forced down the lump that rose in her throat.
“I can’t congratulate you,” Ganymede said, choosing honesty. “I would’ve, maybe, years ago, but this—...” She paused, forced herself to breathe. “You were always a target. Now you’ll be more of one, and… I don’t wish it on anyone.”
A sad, hopeless smile wobbled onto her face. Ganymede tried to find some joy, some reassurance. Her only source of comfort came in knowing that Cybele would fight, that she would use this power in ways others might not.
“You look beautiful,” she concluded. The hopelessness of their situation didn’t change that.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Jun 10, 2023 4:18 pm
Cybele could hardly expect excitement. She didn't think she'd seen a true smile reach Ganymede's eyes since she'd been taken by the Negaverse, and while she hoped to be able to do some things to change that, she didn't think that showing up with wings was going to be enough. She wasn't expecting her sister to be horrified, though, and she did not miss the flash of emotion across her face that she quickly covered up. She hadn't been expecting so much worry, either, and that was not just from Ganymede. Siegfried had been clinging to her more than usual in recent weeks, like he didn't want her out of arm's reach, and while she appreciated the comfort after everything, she didn't understand why everyone was always so surprised when she ended up in danger. Of course she was in danger. Of course something horrible was going to happen to her. She'd accepted this a long time ago. She'd been living on borrowed time since the moment she'd purified, and perhaps even before that. "I might have made the target on myself worse by blowing up a bank," she replied, with her own thin smile. There were flowers in her hair now, not just on her tiara. She plucked one out, and ran a thumb across its soft petals. "I'm not afraid. Others are afraid for me. I know that, but I'm not sure how to start being careful for their sake, or if I can." Being the Negaverse's hunting dog had instilled some things in her, and some of those were harder to shake than others, even years later. "I just-" a breeze picked up, and Cybele loosened her grip on the flower, letting it float away through the trees. "I'm not sure why this happened, or what it means. I'm not sure where to go from here." She didn't expect Ganymede to have all the answers, but she might as well voice her questions.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jun 12, 2023 1:46 pm
“You do what you want with it,” Ganymede said.
She thought it best not to discuss the incident at the bank. Ganymede did what she could not to let her expression change, to show any disapproval. She hadn’t been there, hadn’t been able to be there, so the results were out of her hands.
After so many years of being the one others looked to for guidance, Ganymede found it difficult to cede control, to accept that decisions would be made that she didn’t necessarily agree with. (Maybe that was her nature. She did butt heads with Castor. What did it say about the state of things that she occasionally found herself… not wishing for his presence, but appreciating aspects of it?)
“Certain starseeds have the potential for it,” Ganymede explained. “Maybe we all do, I don’t know. I know I was a Prince in the past, but not every Sailor Ganymede reached royal power. I’m not sure why it happens for some and not others. I wish I did. We could use more. With Castor and the others gone, I haven’t been enough. Even with you, and Lysithea, and Ida… I don’t know that our chances have improved. The Negaverse can promote at will. We can’t. And… I don’t know that the others are capable of doing what might need to be done.”
Ganymede hadn’t been, before. It felt like so long ago, carrying such high minded ideals, believing she could get through the war without blood on her hands, wanting to find another way, to not stoop to the Negaverse’s level.
The years disabused her of that notion. To survive, to free Earth, they had to destroy Metallia, and to destroy Metallia they would have to dispatch many of her loyal soldiers.
“It doesn’t bring any obligations, as far as I know. It isn’t like this,” she said, displaying the glowing, phantom scar on her right palm. “If you want to purify others, then purify them. If you want to fight, then fight. There isn’t a wrong answer, I don’t think. Once you have the power… I’ve not heard of it going away, but… maybe that’s only because the right circumstances haven’t been met.”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Aug 01, 2023 7:37 am
Cybele listened to Ganymede with all of the focus and eagerness that she'd had back in her forgotten school days. Perhaps Ganymede didn't have easy answers, but it was war. That wasn't how things worked. She was wise all the same, wise in a way that Cybele with her shattered memories could never live up to. The permission to fight, in the aftermath of the choices she'd made that might have been questionable, was something hat she hadn't known she'd needed until the words left her sister's mouth. "I'll fight," she said, and while that likely didn't come as a surprise, the spark was there all the same, deep behind her purple eyes. "I never stopped that, when I was at my lowest," with her lost power, her damaged starseed aching in her chest, and she'd been out picking battles all the same, "I'll hardly stop now." A moment passed, and Cybele stretched her wings out behind herself, testing their range of motion. "I'll do what needs to be done. Which, speaking of, and speaking of their promotions," because everyone was growing stronger these days, it seemed, "Do you think it's terribly reckless if I go after their General-Kings?" It was a genuine question. If the thought of having a target on her back was uncomfortable for Ganymede or any of her other loved ones, then she didn't want to make it worse. On the other hand? "Somebody should do something about that, and I don't know who else will."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Aug 01, 2023 8:25 am
Ganymede had expected nothing less from Cybele. Whatever the other royals chose to do, at least Cybele made one other that was ready and willing to fight.
If only the two of them were enough.
Ganymede tried for an encouraging smile, but it faltered quickly. She worried; of course she did. She feared for her loved ones. She yearned for their safety, and did what she could to see that they had it. But if events with Jet and Empyrean had taught her anything, it was that any one of her loved ones could die at any moment, whether they fought or not. This war had always been dangerous. It took so much from them and gave so little back.
“How would you go after them?” Ganymede asked — not with judgment, or an effort to reign Cybele in, but to remain practical. “There are more of them than there are of us, and with the powers they have at their disposal, we’d need double that to take even one of them down. You were there when we invaded the Dark Kingdom. Do you remember? It took dozens of us to kill Apatite. We could barely even touch Laurelite, and that was before she became Queen. We don’t know enough about the three from the battle with the Velencians to come up with any useful strategies against them, and now with Jet and Faustite…”
They should have killed them both when they had the chance.
“I know Jet’s weakness, but the rest…” Ganymede shook her head. She wished sometimes that she could hang onto hope, but every day the situation seemed to become even more bleak. “If you have any ideas, I’m willing to listen, and to help, but the odds of us succeeding are slim to none.”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Aug 04, 2023 1:44 pm
Too dangerous. Ganymede didn't say it outright, because she was kinder than that, but it was obvious enough by how she talked about the Dark Kingdom. Of course. It was the answer that she was expecting, and she would respect it to a point, although she wasn't sure that she wanted to completely buy into the narrative that they were outnumbered, outgunned, and that there was no hope for any of them. "Oh. You know. I was just going to find them all, put them in a room, and then fight them at the same time without any help. Line up a single arrow perfectly or something," she said, and then smiled, trying to lighten the mood before it shifted from serious to grim. Then, she shook her head. "No. I don't have a plan, and I won't go after them without one." Under other circumstances she might have tried it, but there were enough people who were invested in her staying alive at this point that she'd show a bit of restraint. "But I'm optimistic about where things might be able to go from here," she said. "As far as what happened in the Dark Kingdom, I don't remember much about that night. Just snippets." Just standing by Ganymede's side, and the fight. She knew that blood had been spilled, but Laurelite had eventually fallen. She hadn't died, but that didn't mean that they'd lost. "But I know the place well. Too well." Her fingers brushed over her starseed. "Metallia lives in the ground there, somewhere. There's Chaos in the air itself. You walk through it, you breathe it. The agents would have been at their strongest, and we still had some measure of victory." The name Apatite meant nothing to her, but Ganymede was saying she'd died. "And if we're talking about royals, the ratio we have now is better than we've had in a long time, if ever. It's not just you against all of their strongest anymore." If Ida and Lysithea weren't warriors, they were strong in their own way. Cybele understood that. She understood that it might be hard for Ganymede to find hope after the way things had gone recently, but if Cybele had to hold onto that positivity for both of them, she would.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Aug 07, 2023 8:14 am
She’s joking, Ganymede told herself. Take the joke for what it is.
She couldn’t. Too many had already died. Too many had gone missing. The future seemed bleak. They had no strategies, no plans, no cohesion. Too many of their allies clung to idealism. They were naive and unprepared. So few truly understood. They were so preoccupied with their own goodness, they overlooked opportunities to turn events to their favor. Goodness wasn’t going to help them defeat Metallia if they couldn’t even get to her.
Ganymede inhaled deeply and let it out slow.
“We tried reaching Metallia,” she said. “We couldn’t. We had two royals and they were down to one General Queen, but they came out of it in a better position than we did. They got three more Sovereigns and a Queen. I know of at least two other Sovereigns that haven’t been seen in years, but until we have proof that they’re dead, we should assume they could return at any moment. Even if they're gone for good, the Negaverse can create as many Sovereigns as they like. We can’t do the same.”
That was the reality. Their numbers were better now, with Cybelle, with Ida, with Lysithea. Under different circumstances, their combined strength would be considerable. But it wasn’t an even match. Their best hope at this point was survival.
“Maybe if Polaris and Iris weren’t missing. I haven’t seen Chronos since…” Ganymede trailed off, uncertain. It probably wasn’t worth it to hope for their return. “Sometimes I actually wish Castor was around more often, and that’s something I never thought I’d say.”
She wanted to be joyful, but her laughter was sardonic at best. She wanted to hope, but she saw little reason for it. She wanted to be proud of Cybele — and a part of her was; the power she’d gained was an incredible achievement — but all that filled her thoughts was death and despair, the faces of her lost allies, her friends, Empyrean.
“I’m not trying to discourage you, I just… There’s so much to consider. We have no one to rely on but ourselves. Caedus is effectively powerless. Lyndin might be in a position to help, but the Negaverse obviously has more to offer him than we do. The Surrounding is broken. It won’t protect us from whatever else is out there. All the great shadows of the universe…” That was what the Merchant had said. Considering the Velencians came soon after he’d warned her, Ganymede was inclined to believe him. “We still don’t even know why we couldn’t contact Cosmos when the Velencians arrived. All we have are small victories against a much bigger picture.”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2023 1:09 pm
The joke only made Ganymede look more concern, and honestly, it broke Cybele's heart to see that she'd made things worse, again. Her wings, her existence as a Princess, was digging into her sister's heart, and everything that she said was just twisting that knife. "The promotions aren't whenever they want, for what it's worth," she said, with a confidence that came with having been in the Negaverse herself for a time. "It takes a lot of energy. That's the limiting factor in a lot of what they do." They were frustrated with their lack of victory, too, she could have said, but she didn't. Instead, she banished the offending wings, shifting back into the less dramatic Eternal outfit, and taking half a step back in the process. She didn't say anything about how the small victories were something, about how they'd survived so far, about how every day that they kept the Negaverse from fully taking over meant so much to so many people. Cybele might have learned to hold on to hope, but she knew it wasn't something that she could push on to other people. "I'm sorry," she said instead. "I didn't bring you out here to upset you. We can go back, if you'd like, and not think about it anymore. Or we can walk around. The forest is nice, and I can show you the tree where I complain about my problems."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2023 2:44 pm
Ganymede didn’t say that energy was a factor the Negaverse could overcome. Chaos may have never touched her starseed, but she knew it intimately all the same. In purifying so many, in fighting so often, she’d learned the capabilities of her allies and their enemies. When the Negaverse had been their only concern, hope had been easy to maintain. Now the Negaverse was one problem among many. Their attention being split meant the White Moon was less effective than before — and they’d never been all that effective in the first place; most of their successes were due to luck, or unexplained miracles.
Twelve years she’d been a senshi, and Ganymede felt as if they were in a worse position now than they’d been over a decade ago.
“You didn’t upset me,” she said, riddled with guilt. “Don’t apologize. I—... Being upset is my natural state these days, I guess.”
The joke might have landed better if Ganymede could infuse more humor into her voice. Often, she felt alone in her concerns. Few wanted to hear them, and so she’d grown used to carrying the burden herself, relying only on those she knew understood.
“I am happy for you,” she insisted, “even if it seems my concerns outweigh all that. I’m… relieved. The more power you have, the better you can protect yourself. The better you can protect others. I’m glad you still have hope, even if I have much less these days. One of us should hang on to it. It’s just—... I see too many obstacles and too few ways to overcome them. You do this long enough, and have enough people turn to you for guidance and answers, and you start to notice how the number of problems grows.”
A small, apologetic smile twitched onto Ganymede’s face. “I’m sorry. Let’s walk. Let me see this tree. Do you think it’d mind a different voice?”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2023 3:45 pm
When Ganymede said that being upset was her natural state of being, Cybele took a few steps forwards to reach for her hand and offer a gentle squeeze. That was what she could give, right now. Well, that and the tree. "I don't think it will mind. I told it about you. Not when I was complaining," she added, quickly, "I've been trying to tell it stories from my life, these days, instead of just yelling, and crying, and," she paused, a lopsided smile coming to her face, "Throwing shoes. I wasn't happy with this place, there for a while." Cybele knew where she was going. She might not be as invested in space as some people, but she'd walked this path at least a dozen times. It didn't take long at all to get to the ruins of the old hunting camp. Ruins was a generous term. A few fire circles were mostly untouched by time, but all the other structures had been made of light wood, and some cloth, and the best-preserved of these remained only as piles of rotting logs. She'd pitched a single tent in a similar style, but she walked past it for the time being, to look at the great tree instead. It towered over the others, its base as wide as a small building. It cast shade over the camp, and Cybele could have sworn she saw a few birds fluttering through its branches. "I still don't have too many memories, but I can tell this is a sacred place," she said.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Aug 23, 2023 1:02 pm
Ganymede’s laughter was quiet — amused, but reserved about it. She felt nothing like she used to when she was young, angry and defiant. Now all she felt was loss, hopelessness, and bone-deep tiredness.
“Even if you had complained about me, I wouldn’t have blamed you,” she gently countered. Ganymede was self-aware enough to admit that she was hardly infallible. Others had surely said worse about her than anything Cybele would say.
She followed along, taking in the scenery as she did so. Connected though she might be to her own homeworld, she hadn’t often been to others; Ganymede, Jupiter, Alastor, and the Moon made up the extent of her travels. There was still something enchanting about seeing another world. So much of space had once been alive. Perhaps more of it would be again.
The tree certainly had a sacred air about it. She knew nature on Ganymede had been valued for its aesthetic, but there hadn’t been anything spiritual or divine about it in her last life. Probably not the one before that either.
“It’s beautiful,” she said, and she meant it.
Stressed though she might often be about a great many things, it still warmed her heart to be here, to see how far Cybele had come. Ganymede was glad to have fought for her, to have believed that Cybele could free herself from Metallia.
“I hope you don’t find it infantilizing to hear me say that I am proud of you,” she added with a smile — small, but heartfelt. “Because I am, and I’m honored that I get to fight beside you.”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Aug 28, 2023 4:47 pm
Maybe it was childish to feel warm inside when someone said that they were proud of you, but if it was, Cybele didn't cafe. It wasn't like she had a childhood, anyway. "I appreciate it," she said. She went quiet for a moment, thinking. "I didn't complain about people at all," said Cybele with her own tired sort of smile gracing her face as she looked over the tree. She didn't say that even if she had, that there was nothing at all that she would have thought to blame Ganymede for. Perhaps she'd made a miscalculation here and there, but then, didn't they all? Cybele was doing things like that constantly. "Just this place. The world. My power? Whatever the word for that is." She knew that there was more to these moons and planets and asteroids than just rocks and dirt and the obvious. She remembered the glowing light in the middle of Alastor's castle, in the center of his world. It had helped him fight off all those shadows. She hadn't seen something like that here, but she could picture it. "I was blaming it for my corruption. Saying it should have let me transcend a long time ago." Her smile edged a bit sideways, and with one finger, she tapped at her chest. "Maybe it was even listening. It saved me this time."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
