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 Posted: Sun Aug 07, 2011 9:47 pm
Super Sailor Ganymede leaned against the chest-high wall that stood between rooftop adventurers and a long fall to the streets below. The night had been fairly uneventful – which he could only be thankful for – and after taking care of a single, easily dispatched youma, he’d considered calling it a night before a sudden impulse had carried him to a nicer section of town, and he’d found himself jumping from rooftop to rooftop, until coming upon a building he had visited only a couple of times as a civilian, but which he was quickly growing familiar with.
The night was warm. A light breeze ruffled his hair and jostled the little hat on his head. He removed it and held it at hand, one arm draped across the ledge, the other propped at the elbow, hand cradling the side of his face.
He kept on alert. He knew he could be drawing attention to himself, but in a certain sense that was exactly what he wanted to do, though not to any detriment to himself or others. He was in the mood for easy companionship, not a fight, and he hoped his presence would be noticed by the man who lived not too far below where he currently stood. He didn’t know if he was home. For all he knew, his target was out seeing to a late-night patrol of his own, or perhaps sleeping after a long day, but Ganymede was intent on taking his chances. He would linger for a few moments, and hope his plan worked out for the better.
He sighed to himself, idly playing with the feathers on his hat, staring down at the streets, the lights of the city, the few people that wandered the sidewalk, the cars that drove by, and contemplated his place among it all. Then he shifted his gaze skyward, to the moon that hung there, and the stars beyond. Most of them were hidden from view due to the lights around him and a few wisps of clouds above, but he could pick out one or two tiny pinpricks of light, and he focused on them, wondering…
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Posted: Sun Aug 07, 2011 10:04 pm
Someone was above his apartment. He could feel their energy signal and he was starting to get a little freaked out. It wasn't a bad energy, thank goodness, but he was wondering if they were there for a purpose and wanted to hover him until he made an appearance, or just happened to stop and rest right above a knight's apartment.
Chris slowly got up from his couch, pushing his laptop onto the coffee table, and telling Annabel to stay. She didn't look as though she was about to get up, anyway, seeing as she was just sitting there on the couch, curled up and ready for the night, but he wanted to make sure she knew not to follow him.
Getting to the roof was easy. It was powering up and not being caught that could be the hard part. The window in the loft lead out to the fire escape, which was where he was headed, quietly unlocking the window and sliding it open so he could step out onto he metal platform. From there, he had a ladder to the top. He climbed it slowly, glanced around to make sure he was covered in darkness, and powered up.
Valhalla climbed cautiously over the edge and onto the roof, looking around for where he'd felt the energy and stared in surprise when he found the source.
"Ganymede...? What are you doing here...?" Odd place to linger, wasn't it?
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Posted: Sun Aug 07, 2011 10:18 pm
He felt him before he saw him. One moment there was nothing, and the next... there... so close to him he could have seen if he were standing on the opposite side of the building, but he waited until Chris had climbed over the edge and spoke to him as Valhalla. Then he turned, and put an expression of delighted surprise on his face, as if he hadn't planned and hoped for this very thing to occur, as if it were mere coincidence that they'd suddenly crossed paths.
"Wonder Boy," he joked, leaning back against the wall as he faced him, letting his hat fall onto an extended index finger, which he used to nonchalantly twirl it 'round and 'round. "Odd place for you to turn up. Can't say I'm disappointed, though."
He looked him over. He'd seen him before, of course, a few times by this point, but there'd always been something or someone to fight, and he'd never had a good chance to just look. The outfit wasn't strange so much as from another age, like a viking warrior from medieval times had suddenly found himself in the middle of a bright, modern city. It seemed so out of place, though Chris -- Val, he corrected himself -- filled it out well. Ganymede quite enjoyed the sight of his upper arms framed by the fur along his shoulders and the braces below his elbows.
"I was out and about," he explained, "taking care of a few things. I thought I'd rest for a bit before heading home, though I guess that's not the greatest idea, is it?"
He smiled invitingly, but remained where he was. He was sure Val would come closer on his own. "Were you on your way out? A bit late for that, don't you think?"
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Posted: Sun Aug 07, 2011 10:32 pm
Valhalla approached the senshi cautiously, making sure he felt no other energies around them, no youma lurking in the shadows, or any negaverse officers waiting to take energy from unsuspecting innocents.
"Not really that odd," he said casually. "And no, I wasn't heading out anywhere. I live here..."
No, he probably shouldn't be telling others where he lived or who he was... but it was Ganymede and he could trust him, right? At least he'd had no reason not to trust him, before. "I was wondering if someone had been hanging around here on purpose... It was starting to make me nervous. I wish I could tell who was who," he said, moving over to where the young man in the red, white, and black was standing. He looked him over as well. The white bodice and off the shoulder sleeves, the hat and the shorts and long legs, although they were mostly covered by his boots and stockings.
"You upgraded," he pointed out, although he figured that was pretty obvious at this point. "I mean... before we didn't really get a chance to talk... Uh... It looks good on you."
Wait, was that weird to say? He was just being nice. Well, it did look nice on him — he pulled it off at least.
Anyway... this was getting awkward fast, so he shut his mouth and glanced up at the moon and stars that were still visible. "I haven't looked at the sky in a long time," he said, letting out a small sigh. "Could we really be from... somewhere out there...?"
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Posted: Sun Aug 07, 2011 10:50 pm
Ganymede almost slipped and frowned as Valhalla revealed his place of residence. He wanted to start lecturing him immediately, remind him that he shouldn't be saying things like that around people he barely know, but that was something he would have done as Paris, and though he didn't think a friendly but instructive rant would be enough to give himself away, he didn't want to accidentally slip up and say something he shouldn't. Instead, he tried to look intrigued, raising his eyebrows as if to say "Is that so?"
His smile grew a little more strained when his change in outfit was pointed out. He didn't bother looking down at it. He'd examined it enough since it had happened. "Thanks, I guess. I'm still getting used to it."
Though it wasn't so much the outfit he had to get used to, but the idea that he was allowing himself to become more deeply entrenched in the goings-on of the city.
He sighed again, remaining as he was with his back against the wall, and turning his head to glance up at Val. He laughed at the question, not because he thought it in any way absurd -- obviously, it wasn't -- but because of his final three words which, aside from making him think of his own world far away, brought to mind a childhood song. "Somewhere out there, beneath the pale moonlight~"
He cut himself off with a sheepish grin. "Sorry. Couldn't help myself," he said, and then quickly became a little more serious, continuing to swing his hat around his finger. "But to answer your question, yes. Europa showed me. Took me to her world. We danced a little, had a bit of fun." He paused and tipped his head back, glancing into the sky and imagining he could see Jupiter hanging there instead of the moon. "And then I went to Ganymede a couple of weeks ago. It was... sort of creepy... but sad. It puts a few things in perspective, I guess."
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Posted: Sun Aug 07, 2011 11:01 pm
He was a little surprised when Ganymede started singing, but he soon smiled and laughed lightly. "My girlfriend likes breaking out into song, too... Sorry, you just reminded me of her a little..." It was the singing, really. He hadn't met many people who sang freely — a lot of people were shy about it. Not that he'd sung that much, but it was enough.
"You went there?" Valhalla asked with a frown, intrigued but confused as he turned to the super senshi. "You can really go to where you're from and see it...? I've heard others talk about going to where they're from, but... I don't know if I want to see my place... I don't even know if there will be anything there." And it was on Jupiter, so what if it was impossible to breathe or whatever...? Of course, people who had gone to Mercury had said it was cold, but that made no sense since it was the closest to the Sun... Maybe there was a special magic that kept these otherwise unlivable planets and moons and... whatever else the senshi and knights were named for... livable.
"I don't really have time to explore, anyway..."
It was a lame excuse, but he didn't want to go and end up disappointed. He had only heard bits and pieces of what it was like, but never enough for him to decide if that was something he wanted to try or not.
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Posted: Sun Aug 07, 2011 11:16 pm
He held back a wince and tried not to let his expression change at all when the singing brought his civilian self into the conversation. He hadn't thought of that. He hadn't even realized that would be anything for Chris to pick up on. He hadn't noticed that he did that. Well, he knew he sang from time to time, but he hadn't considered it to be any sort of identifying trait, or something that would make Chris think of him if someone else happened to do the same thing.
It was sort of sweet, that he would notice things like that about him, and then bring him up so easily in conversation with a person whom he thought was someone else.
Ganymede did his best to show him another "Is that so?" look, and didn't comment on it.
"I didn't really consider going either, until Europa mentioned it. Seeing her world was at least enough to convince me to give mine a chance, and in the end..." He paused, remembering, and finding he didn't quite know how to explain it. "Well, I didn't see much. Just a bunch of ruins. The only building that looked like anything recognizable was a castle. Europa was the same way. I mean, it was different. You know, different places. But it was ruins, too. I assume Valhalla would be the same way. I don't know if it's different for you knights or not."
He didn't know much more about the knights now than he had when he and Valhalla had first encountered one another, though Chris had told him they weren't given a means to communicate, which meant they wouldn't have phones, and as the senshi depended on their phones to travel to their worlds, he hadn't a clue how Valhalla was supposed to go.
"How do you feel about all this?" he wondered. He stopped playing with his hat, and turned around to prop an elbow on the wall again, hand planted against his face as he returned to staring at Valhalla's profile. "The whole suddenly being someone else thing... and the fighting... I haven't really had the chance to talk to very many people about it, and if I have they haven't generally been very pleasant conversations," he said, remembering his first encounter with Kallichore.
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Posted: Sun Aug 07, 2011 11:26 pm
"Maybe I'll go one day, then..." he said, mostly to himself, as he leaned back against the ledge of the roof. He hadn't really thought about seeing Valhalla, or what was left of it. People had talked about meeting ancestors, or at least the ghosts of them, so maybe he would meet one, too. It was kind of creepy, knowing there were ghosts out in space, just waiting for them to be born or whatever was going on there, but... it was also kind of fascinating.
Valhalla frowned to himself when Ganymede asked how he felt about everything, wondering that, himself. It just wasn't one of those things he took time to work out in his head. It was just... there. And he dealt with it.
"I feel obligated. I can feel monsters and I want to protect people," he said, not knowing what kind of answer Ganymede was looking for. "I don't like the fighting. I wish there was a way for it all to stop. I know there are a lot of people who disagree with things, mostly the senshi and negaverse, but... I don't really understand why. I don't know more than the general knowledge of them hating each other and wanting to kill each other. I don't want that. I would rather we find a way to work everything out... somehow."
If no blood was ever spilt again, that would be a miracle... and he prayed for it.
"What about you...? How do you feel about all this?" he wondered, turning the question back to the senshi.
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Posted: Sun Aug 07, 2011 11:43 pm
"Me?" he wondered, though he'd been expecting the question to be returned to him. Perhaps that was part of the reason he'd asked in the first place, because he talked about it with so few people, and sometimes it was nice just to be open about things for a while. "Bitter, I guess. Angry. I had a life before, and I was fine with it. I was used to it. And if bad things happened, well... I dealt with it."
Sometimes, he thought it was hard to remember the way things had been before, when life was so much simpler, even though it had only been five or so months since things had changed.
"But as for the rest of it... I guess I feel obligated, too. I saw some of this when I was normal. I saw what it was like. Not a lot, but... enough. Then I awakened and... I don't know. Part of me doesn't want to bother with it. What does it all matter to me? And then another part of me thinks about the people I know being in a situation like I was in, being in that sort of danger, and I know that even if I don't like what's happened to me, I have to protect them, or I'll never forgive myself. You have kids out there, and innocent people. It just seems... wrong... to look the other way."
He shifted slightly, inched a little closer, lowering his head to stare at the street below them. "Otherwise, I have more of a 'live and let live' mentality. I don't know if there's any chance of working things out now, though, not when everything's gotten so crazy, when there's so much anger. It's... disappointing... I just want to live my life, as selfish as that might sound. I just want to fight with my parents, see my friends, be young and alive. Except, now that I know what's out there... I don't think I can go back and pretend as if there isn't something more to all of this. And then I don't know if I feel bitter about that or just... resigned..."
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Posted: Mon Aug 08, 2011 12:03 am
Valhalla nodded to him to let him know he was listening. He could understand being bitter and angry, but for him... he'd been dragged into this, sure, but he was lucky and had people to hold is hand through the beginning. He thought he was a bit better now, but when he'd first awakened, he was pretty helpless.
"Yeah, I don't know what I'm going to do once school starts back up..." he said with a wince at the thought. "Right now it's easy... I've been so used to focusing solely on school and baseball that during the summers I feel restless. I usually volunteer at the animal shelter, but I've had to cut back on hours..." He paused, realizing he should probably explain as he went.
"Uh, I have a scholarship for baseball... And don't worry about feeling selfish. I'm afraid I'm going to end up throwing out my arm, or getting it injured, and then I'll lose the scholarship, I won't get a chance to be drafted, and that would be the end of a dream that's... pretty out there to begin with." Because really... not many people made it to the Major Leagues. He could pitch pretty fast and pretty accurately, but he had to work on his batting like whoa.
"I like my life as it is... Or was... I have people I care about and I don't want them being hurt. My best friends have already been pulled into it, too. One of them is a cat! The last thing I need is for my brothers or my girlfriend ending up like one of us... I'd... hate that," he told Ganymede, staring down at himself as he picked at some of the fur along his shoulder. "I don't want more people I know getting mixed up in this... What if I'm not there to protect them? Or what if something happens to them? We've seen the children running around and fighting... What next...?"
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Posted: Mon Aug 08, 2011 12:05 pm
Ganymede forced his expression to stay neutral as Valhalla once again brought his civilian self into the discussion. He didn't plan on telling Chris he was Ganymede any more than he planned on telling him that he wasn't a girl. He supposed if he'd been honest with him since the beginning, he might have revealed himself to him if they'd still somehow managed to become friends, but now it was too late for that. He would have to satisfy himself with knowing. When he was with Chris, he was with Valhalla, and when he was with Valhalla, he was with Chris.
"At least you have friends," he said. He stopped cradling his face to lower his arm and twist his hat between his hands. "I don't know anyone. Sometimes I think if I did, everything would have been easier in the beginning, but I was pretty much on my own, and who do you turn to at that point? I don't exactly trust people, so I'm not going to go right up to them and be, like, 'Oh, hi, I'm Ganymede. How's it hangin'?' It's sort of... isolating. It's my own fault, but... It'd be nice if everything was easier. Maybe that's asking for too much."
He glanced over at Valhalla again, wanting to reach over and smooth out the fur he was fiddling with, but he held the impulse back. He nearly shifted closer to rest his head along Valhalla's shoulder -- an action that wouldn't have been out of place if they were Chris and Paris -- but one he thought wouldn't be quite as welcome as they were now. He settled for giving Val a light, friendly punch to the shoulder instead.
"We should stick together," he decided, or at least pretended as if he'd just decided that. He'd been hoping to be able to bring it up for some time now, there simply hadn't ever been much of a chance. "You're aligned with Jupiter, I'm from a moon of Jupiter, it sort of makes sense, doesn't it? You could probably use all the help you can get anyway. No magic, not much of a weapon... I'm not the strongest fighter, but we seem to have similar... um... 'principles' is what I guess you would say. I could definitely use some muscle sometimes," he added, catering to temptation this time and giving Val's bicep a bit of a squeeze. "Although I guess I can't offer you much in return, except for some company and a pretty face," he joked.
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Posted: Mon Aug 08, 2011 7:04 pm
He frowned at Ganymede, feeling sad for him. It was rough already, he couldn't imagine how it would be like if he didn't have anyone to talk him through the beginning. If he had to do this all on his own, he might have ended up isolating himself, not able to trust anyone.
"You're not asking for too much. You can never ask for too much when you're doing something like this — risking your life for the wellbeing of others," Valhalla told him, confident in his words. With this line of work, there was only so much they could do, but he felt that if they started lowering their worth too much, it would turn into a burden and then what was the point...?
He didn't move when Ganymede punched his arm, watching him sadly, instead. He didn't realize how depressing talking to him would be, but he was now wishing that he was able to talk to everyone he met, no matter who they were.
"You can count on me, Ganymede," he told him, reaching out to place his hand over the senshi's, holding it against his arm. Valhalla wanted him to know that he was serious, that he meant that he could trust him and expect him to aid him if he was ever needed to help. "You're more than just a pretty face, you know," he told him, giving his hand a squeeze. He didn't know why he was so drawn to the senshi, but he figured it might have to do with them both being from Jupiter and its moon. Well, he'd been loyal to Jupiter, but he'd been from Earth, he was pretty certain.
But to answer his question, he nodded. "I'd like that. Sticking together, I mean."
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Posted: Mon Aug 08, 2011 7:38 pm
"I think you just took six months of struggling and made it completely worth it, Val."
Ganymede stared up at Valhalla, not sure how he should feel now that he'd agreed. In the end, he felt a mix of things -- bitterness, still, that he and Chris were even involved in this; sadness that they were risking everything, and for what?; but there was happiness, too, and relief, and an immediate sense of loyalty, deep and fierce, to the man who'd accepted his friendship both in this life, and in their normal one. For once, the good feelings came through stronger than the negative ones, and Ganymede felt something he rarely had before in regards to this situation.
He felt hope.
Instinct pushed him to react as he normally would have, to kiss, or to hug, or to lay his head along Val's shoulder, but he stubbornly resisted and stood there staring at him instead. He took a deep, steadying breath as he finally came to a decision, one he'd been struggling with for months -- running from and avoiding and putting off until later. He nodded, and in doing so he committed himself to this life, to living and potentially dying for something so much bigger than anything he'd ever known.
"Live and die this way," he quietly said, more to himself than Valhalla, finally choosing and giving in.
He closed his eyes for a few moments as he came to grips with the decision, never letting go of Valhalla's arm. Instead, he gripped it tighter, as if it were enough to keep him there, always, his grounding force and supportive pillar.
After a few more deep breaths, he opened his eyes again and smiled softly. "How do Monday nights sound to you? I can meet you here, or at least in the area so we don't attract too much attention to this building, and we can patrol together. Turn the worst day of the week into the best."
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Posted: Mon Aug 08, 2011 8:40 pm
Vahalla stared back at Ganymede, not entirely sure what he said to have him react as he did. Was it because he was agreeing to stick together with him? He wasn't sure, but what else could it be?
He let the senshi hold onto his arm, keeping his hand over his in order to try and help him through whatever thoughts he was having. It must be difficult, trying to do something all on your own without anyone to put faith and trust in. He was lucky... He had his best friends, he had his girlfriend, he had the knights who were more or less a family to him. Well, some of them were. The others he wasn't so sure about, but he was willing to work with them.
"Hmm... Monday nights might be difficult. Football..." he said with a frown, before smiling to show that he was only joking. "Monday sounds fine... It doesn't have to be just once a week, either. If you show up here and I'm home, I'll definitely meet you out here," he offered, wondering if he really wanted to keep it to just one night a week, depending on how often they both did patrols. "Unless you think you'll get tired of me, then one night a week is just fine."
He didn't mind, either way. He kind of liked that they were planning this and not diving into something unpredictable. Monday night patrols with Ganymede sounded just fine to him.
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Posted: Mon Aug 08, 2011 10:21 pm
He laughed at Val's attempt at a joke and slowly slipped the hand away from his arm, shifting back so that he wasn't nearly on top of them as they stood there by the ledge. "I thought we could start with one night a week and see where things go from there, assuming we work well together, though I think we have so far. We can decide on more after that. I was trying to be nice and not keep you out every night. You know, give you some time with your girlfriend."
Not that Val wouldn't be spending time with his girlfriend when they were together but, again, Valhalla didn't know that.
After another few moments, Ganymede did his best to get himself under control, and released another sigh as he looked out over the city. "I suppose we should go our separate ways for now. We've been up here long enough. Might start drawing unwanted attention."
He began to back away, lifting his hat back up to his head, though before placing it back on completely, he tipped it teasingly toward Valhalla. "Take care of yourself, Wonder Boy. I'll see you on Monday."
And he turned to leap onto another rooftop, then another, and another, looking over his shoulder once or twice to see if Valhalla was still there, before focusing on his journey. He didn't particularly want to leave, but he knew he couldn't stay, at least not as he was now, not when their power signatures could be sensed by other people. He'd stopped above Chris's apartment to attract his attention, but that didn't mean he wanted to bring the wrong sort of notice to the building and make Chris's living space anymore dangerous than any other place in the city.
But he wasn't going far...
Once he felt he'd put a good bit of distance between them, Ganymede left the rooftops and found a dark alley in which to henshin down. He left the alley as Paris, in a skirt, blouse, and heeled shoes, and turned back in the direction of his boyfriend's apartment.
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