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 Posted: Fri Jul 10, 2015 7:30 am
He could hear the commotion nearby, could feel the dark and light auras clashing even though he could not clearly see the General Queen and Ganymede's fight. Through his muffled senses he could hear Ganymede call out his name, followed by a shout of pain. She was getting hurt. Ganymede was fighting off Laurelite and getting hurt in the process.
Valhalla tried turning to be able to see more clearly, but the pain of the corruption was paralyzing. All he could make out was the reviving warmth of Ganymede's white and the suffocating cold of Laurelite's black. His hands still clutched tightly to his chest, gripping his tunic as though he meant to tear it from him if he had the strength. How anyone could survive the pain he was experiencing now, he was unsure. With the chaos eating away at him, darkening his clothing, and blurring his vision, he wasn't sure he would be able to survive.
He would rather die than be ordered to fight Ganymede. Or his brothers. Or any of his allies. What if he was ordered to kill Pasiphae or Callisto? Or made to fight Alexandria or Athene? Quartz surely did not want to fight but was forced to. And Cyllene and Wolframite were bound to that same fate, unable to escape. What would happen should he fall to the darkness? Would they be able to kill him before he could hurt them?
Valhalla wanted to reach for his compass, to try and help fight off the General Queen, but he could barely breathe, much less focus his magic. He may end up hitting Ganymede in the process.
A wave of chaos seemed to surge through him and he could not hold back the agonized cry as he curled up on himself on his side, tears still burning his face as they fell.
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Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2015 5:38 am
For all the pains she took trying to pay attention to Laurelite's movements, Ganymede was unprepared for the kick to her stomach—quick on her feet, but not quite quick enough to dodge it. It forced some of the air from her lungs in the form of a ragged gasp. Ganymede stepped back to recover as Laurelite prepared to swing her scythe again.
What was she supposed to do? How was she supposed to defeat a General-Queen? Even with her newfound power, Laurelite seemed more powerful still. She had the benefit of experience. Ganymede had nothing at her disposal but panic and despair.
She had to get to Valhalla. Somehow, she had to save him.
She looked beyond the General-Queen to Valhalla on the ground, his clothes turning progressively darker in the moonlight. What could she do? How was she supposed to save him when defeating Laurelite seemed so far beyond her? What had she ever hoped to accomplish by confronting the General-Queen in the first place? She should have known better. They both should have known better.
'I need help,' Ganymede thought.
She couldn't do this alone.
Be that as it may, instinct compelled her to summon a rose red crystal into her hands. Ganymede spared it a quick glance, relying entirely on impulse rather than experience. She could not hope to compare to the General-Queen in that regard, but she had desperation and bravery on her side.
Bravery wasn't the absence of fear, she knew; it was staring fear in the face and refusing to back down.
Ganymede refused to give in. She would not give up just because the situation seemed hopeless.
“Ganymede Crystal Power!” she cried.Quote: Ganymede Crystal Power:All targets within 150 ft of Ganymede find themselves overcome by a sense of desire that manifests physically as a painful heating of the body. The heat becomes so strong if feels almost as if their blood is boiling, like they are burning up from the inside. Targets include all those infected by Chaos, as well as those of Order who have ever given into their bloodlust and committed murder. The sensation lasts a full 30 seconds. Targets are likely to feel weak and disoriented afterwards. Secondary Passive Ability - Pheromone Secretion:When in mortal danger or extreme distress, Ganymede emits pheromones that serve as a distress call and a homing beacon. Order aligned allies can sense these pheromones and, following the trail, can find their way to the scene without further direction.
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Posted: Sun Jul 26, 2015 9:34 am
The second the crystal appeared in Ganymede's hands, Laurelite was filled with a twisted mixture of dread and curiosity and excitement. She had done many things in the name of science—of learning and understanding crystals and all they could do. She hadn't gotten to play with a princess' crystal. Laurelite gripped her sphere tighter as the attack began. At first, the heat wasn't so bad, and she thought she might be able to push through it. She drew her scythe back; she might yet slaughter the woman before her and snatch the crystal. A dead princess, a crystal, and a new General? If only life would be so kind to her. But it wasn't. The burning increased at a rate that almost made her drop her weapon. Instead, she planted the hilt into the ground and leaned against it to steady herself. Her body trembled and even Laurelite, for all her strength and experience, couldn’t move. Had she had less willpower, she might have screamed. For nearly fifteen seconds, she withstood the attack, and then it was too much for her. She was exhausted and dizzy and hurt—and there was the very distinct prickling of Order encroaching on them. With a scream of rage, she glowered at the senshi. "I will have your head one day," she seethed—and then she was gone. What power she had left she used to teleport herself away. If nothing else, she would take the information she'd collected.
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Posted: Sun Jul 26, 2015 6:37 pm
Valhalla wondered if anyone had died from the process of being corrupted before. The pain was incredible and overpowering, seizing up his muscles and breaking his will to try and fight back. But he refused to let it claim him. He knew if the pain wouldn’t end his life, he would resist to the point of ending it, himself.
It was not a quick process as he’d seen the General Queen exact upon the squire in the park, but then again… she had been pumping in chaos the entire time, rather than leaving him to suffer. Waiting for the chaos to do its own work.
“G… Ganymede…” he called out, but it was soft; barely a whisper. He felt as though he was reaching his last ounce of strength. Something inside of him was starting to crack. Not just his will, but something physically breaking inside of him. A sharp stabbing of pain from his chest made him wonder if this was it… if he would either be corrupted or die.
He hoped Ganymede would be able to understand that he was trying his hardest to survive, but he was reaching his limit. There was only so much green and gold left of his uniform. The filigree pin of Jupiter’s symbol that once glowed softly with the magic found on Valhalla started to dim and crack, just like the starseed inside his chest, tainted with the power of chaos.
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Posted: Tue Jul 28, 2015 8:09 am
Laurelite's disappearance was both a surprise and a relief.
For a few moments Ganymede wasn't entirely sure she was gone. She expected Laurelite to reappear without warning, and she stood waiting with her crystal in her hands, staring around as if trying to determine where Laurelite would come from next. The side? Behind? It wasn't until she heard Valhalla calling to her again that Ganymede allowed herself to believe that Laurelite was truly gone. Ganymede could no longer feel her aura, and Laurelite didn't strike her as the type to hide and play games.
“Val!”
As soon as she was sure that they were alone and out of danger, Ganymede dropped her defensive stance and ran to the prone form of her husband. She fell to her knees beside him and stared in horror at how much of his clothes had already changed. Was it too late? Would she be able to save him without any adverse effects? Or had Laurelite done too much damage? Would this change things irrevocably?
Hastily, Ganymede pulled Valhalla into her arms. She kissed him, and she shushed him, and she held him steady as the Chaos continued to work its way through him.
“It's okay,” she said. “Everything's going to be okay.”
She struggled to believe it.
“Shhh, I've got you now. I'll fix everything, I promise.”
Determinedly, Ganymede set Valhalla's head in her lap and wielded her crystal above him. She concentrated on her newfound power, on the Chaos which slowly consumed her husband, and she focused all of her attention into forcing it out of him. Her crystal glowed brightly, a beacon of white light in the dark of night.
She couldn't lose him to the darkness. They'd been through so much—had so much to look forward to now.
“Please, Val, don't give in,” she said. “Come back to me.”
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Posted: Tue Jul 28, 2015 9:17 am
The exertion of trying to resist the chaos was causing his starseed to crack; it would be easier to give in than to fight it to the brink of death, he was finding. He cried out from the pain as desperate, angry tears fell. Even as Ganymede found her way to his side to try and comfort him, he wished she would instead put as much distance between him and herself. He didn’t know if he could fight this much longer.
He couldn’t hear her as she spoke to him, he couldn’t see her beyond the white of her gown, but he could feel her lips against his face and smell the amber perfume she wore. As much as he wanted her to get to safety, he was also thankful for her company. He didn’t know if he could continue fighting alone.
And then there was a warmth, drawing him out of the darkness. At first the crystal’s power only slowed the black absorbing into his uniform, but then it eventually came to a stop. And then, just as slowly, began to recede. It was like being able to draw a breath after being underwater for too long. Slowly, the green began to come back into his uniform as the chaos was pushed out, the pin on his chest brightened, and the armor he’d already discarded started looking more polished and clean.
Valhalla’s eyes were still blurred with tears when he could finally open them and look up at Ganymede, but the pain was receding as the chaos left him. Finally cleaned of the blackness that threatened to overtake him, a pain in his chest had him wincing and shutting his eyes once more. The armor he was no longer wearing was the first to vanish as everything from that night finally caught up with him; adrenaline probably being the only thing keeping him awake until that moment. In a matter of seconds, the transformation left him as he slipped out of consciousness.
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